The Lost Girl
by Norificus
Summary: Privileged Buffy Summers is seven years old when she moves next door to the troubled abused Faith Lehane for a summer of friendship and life’s lessons that neither will ever forget.
1. Moving Day

Summary: Privileged Buffy Summers is seven years old when she moves next door to the troubled abused Faith Lehane for a summer of friendship and life's lessons that neither will ever forget.

Disclaimer: Don't own Buffy and Faith, or anyone else. All references to Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are property of J. M. Barrie.

Authors Note: Set Pre-series. This isn't going to be as depressing as my last effort, lol. It will mostly be cute and happy for the Christmas season… and even though much of the story will be about Faith's rough childhood and what would happen if the slayers met as children, hopefully Faith will finally get that break she needs. I'm going to take some liberty with some of the minor characters, but Buffy and Faith will be as close to how I imagined they behaved in childhood. I know they may seem a little bit too mature for seven, but I've known some pretty grown-up seven year olds myself, and I didn't want to write a something that's so childish it's silly.

The first chapters not much, but it will get more interesting soon, I promise! There will be vampires. :)

* * *

"But I don't want to move!" seven year old Buffy Summers declared angrily. "All of my friends will get to go to summer camp without me and have all the fun while I'm stuck here bored to death in 'SUNNYHELL.'"

"Buffy!" Hank said angrily. "Watch your language, young lady."

Beside her, her three year old sister Dawn clapped her hands delightedly. She always liked watching her sister get in trouble. Especially for swearing.

Buffy's mother, Joyce did her best to smooth over the situation. "Buffy, it's only for a few months, dear. Just until your father's work allows us to move back home. Think of it as a vacation."

"Some vacation." Buffy said grumpily slouching back in her seat. She had pouted and pouted and tried her best to get her parents to agree to let her stay with her friends Kimberly and Cassandra in her hometown Los Angeles, but they hadn't given into her likely they usually did. Most of the time, her parents let her have whatever she wanted, her mother doing this out of guilt because she felt bad Buffy had to hear her mother and father fight all the time. During a fight, they would always throw the idea of divorce up in the air but hadn't followed through with it as yet. Joyce always had to be the one to apologize, which she did for Buffy's sake, swallowing her pride so her daughter would not have to suffer. Hank Summers himself, allowed his daughter her every wish, because he had no idea how to respond to her and what it meant to be a father. It was far easier for him to just throw new and expensive dolls in her direction to make up for his lack of fatherly skills.

Dawn was getting restless, as three year olds often do. "Mooommmy. Are we there NOOOOW?" she whined.

Buffy clapped her hands over her ears and sighed. Her little sister was only good at one thing, and that was whining. She could draw words out to at least ten times the amount of syllables in her high pitched voice. And it really got on Buffy's nerves sometimes.

Joyce answered her. "Almost Dawnie. We're just a couple of blocks away now. Just sit tight."

Good. Buffy thought to herself. Between her parents bickering and her sisters whining she was fed up. Nobody wanted to play 'I Spy' with her, not even Dawn. But this might have been because Buffy never let her little sister win, and Buffy always chose to make her guess the hardest words she could think of. Just like the word 'big-hairy-mole-on-the-back-of-dads-neck' which in Buffy's opinion was an easy one. Little words could be squished together to make bigger and much cooler words and Buffy experimented with this every morning with her alphabet soup cereal even though it made her mother angry to see her playing with her food.

Buffy always got the blame for everything, and Dawn never did. Buffy was the big sister and therefore had to set the example. When Dawn stuck chopsticks up her nose insisting they were 'vampire tooths,' Buffy had instantly received the blame for her behaviour. Granted, she had encouraged her and chased her around the room attempting to put her own chopstick through her heart and kill vampire Dawn. But still, Dawn had free will didn't she? She didn't HAVE to listen to Buffy and she mostly didn't care what rules Buffy tried to use with her anyway, so why should Buffy be blamed for anything Dawn did?

Buffy stared out of the window deep in seven year old thoughts as the Summers family car pulled into the driveway of their new house. She looked as far as she could see into the yard next door trying to see if there were any children she could play with so this summer wouldn't be a total waste. There was a tall tree in the neighbour's yard which immediately caught Buffy's attention. Sitting on one of the topmost branches was a young girl, maybe a year or two older than Buffy with black curly hair. Buffy was instantly curious and stared at her, deciding she was very brave to climb that tall tree without her mother and father around. As Hank Summers parked the car and began to unload it, Buffy was handed several of her own suitcases and told to unpack – now. Buffy walked backwards inside her new house, stumbling a little but never taking her eyes off the mysterious girl. After she unpacked, Buffy planned to go next door and introduce herself and ask for some tree climbing tips and maybe, she hoped, make a new friend.


	2. Hi, I'm Buffy

A soon as that little blonde girl had finally tuned her back and went inside, Faith stuck out her tongue and climbed up to a higher branch.

What a princess, she thought. Got mommy and daddy fussing over her and carrying her bags like she's going to be the future queen of Sunnydale.

That's IF she even sticks around that long, most kids aren't tough enough to stick it out here, Faith reasoned with herself thinking back to the mysterious disappearance of her almost-sort-of-friend Kenny and hoped for the zillionth time that nothing had 'got' him and he'd just run away like Faith hoped to do herself one day. Although Sunnydale was full of strange occurrences that Faith couldn't understand yet – these were nothing to her in comparison to what she faced on a daily basis in her own home. Right now, she could hear her mom inside 'bangin' her boyfriend'. Even worse, Faith knew if she wasn't careful, as soon as her mom passed out from drinking, he was just as likely to go for her too. Faith shivered at the thought of this.

Bet that blonde girls Daddy wouldn't dream of doing that to her, Faith thought bitterly sliding down from the tree. She'd been up there for hours waiting for them to be finished.

She peeked inside and nearly fell over to see her mom and Ed definitely NOT banging. In fact they were side by side just talking to each other and her mom almost looked half awake for once.

Filled with hope Faith ran inside and charged up to her mother putting her skinny little arms around her mothers neck and holding on tightly.

"Mommy, mommy! I climbed a tree higher than I ever did before today.' She told her mother, so desperate for her mothers' approval that she failed to see the agitation on her face.

"Faith! What the hell?" Catherine Lehane said angrily pushing her daughter away hard enough that she fell and landed with a bump on the floor adding yet another bruise to her body. None of them hurt nearly as much as the bruises Faith's mother left on her heart.

"Can't you see we were talking?" she continued angrily, glaring at her young daughter. Faith knew better than to push her further but she had to ask.

"Mommy." She pleaded near tears. "I'm really hungry."

"No you're not." Catherine said dismissing her. "Go to your room NOW."

But Faith WAS hungry. There was nothing in the few cupboards that Faith could actually reach and Faith's mother hadn't given her daughter anything since day before yesterday.

Seeing Faith's expression, Catherine instantly snapped like she so often did. "BAD GIRLS don't get fed. GO TO your room."

Unable to argue that logic, miserably Faith took the stairs to her tiny room and stared out the window at the blonde girls' house.

It was a few days later when Faith saw the little blonde girl and here mom coming across her lawn and bringing what looked like a delicious chocolate cake with them. After they rang the doorbell three times Faiths mom finally answered. Faith sprinted down the stairs and hid in the shadowed corner so she could hear what was being said.

"Whaddaya want." Faith's mom slurred. The lady with the blonde girl looked suspicious, but remained polite.

"Hello, my name is Joyce Summers and this is my daughter Buffy. We've just moved in next door to you and Buffy was quite adamant that we should start cooking right away and bring you one of our famous Summer's chocolate cakes." Joyce said pleasantly. Buffy beamed at Catherine and Joyce didn't have the heart to tell her that it was actually the custom for the permanent resident to bring the new neighbour a gift – not the other way around.

"Catherine, nice to meet you." Faith's mother said eying them and taking the cake from Joyce.

"Buffy said you have a young daughter." Joyce said casually knowing full well that this was the reason for Buffy's sudden act of hospitability.

"Oh yeah." Catherine frowned. "Faith! Where is that little brat? FAITH!"

Faith stepped out of the shadows and moved shyly to stand by her mother, half hidden behind her. Her mother shoved her forward roughly and Joyce's eyes widened in surprise. With a mother like this, she had been expecting a rude, sullen child, not this sweet shy looking girl in ragged clothing, her face obscured by a mass of tangled hair.

"Hello, Faith." Joyce said warmly kneeling down to her level. "It's nice to meet you." Faith had no idea how to respond to this, no-one had ever seemed pleased to meet a bad girl like her before.

"HI FAITH! I'm Buffy." Buffy said brightly, desperate to get the slightly taller girls attention.

Momentarily forgetting her shyness, Faith smirked and said "Buffy?"

Princess Buffy, she thought that sounded quite funny.

"That's right." Buffy said defiantly almost annoyed with her new neighbour.

"I'll call ya B." Faith said to her smiling.

Buffy's fury vanished. A nickname for me already, she thought. Faith was so cool.

Joyce, still enchanted with the little girl asked Catherine who was standing there looking as if she'd rather be anywhere else if Faith could come over and play today. "We'll take good care of her." Joyce assured.

Catherine could have cared less about that part. "You'd take the little brat for the rest of the day?" she asked, her eyes narrowing, wondering what god had bestowed such good fortune upon her. She thrust Faith forward again. "Hey, thanks a lot." Catherine said awkwardly. "Have her as long as you want." She then slammed the door in everyones faces.

"Well." Joyce said taking Faith's hand. "Lets get you set up in Buffy's room with a snack then."

The desperately grateful look Faith then gave her at the word 'snack' filled Joyce with emotions she couldn't place so she just squeezed Faith's small hand a little tighter.


	3. Finding Neverland

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

Cliodhna- Hey, you're good! I searched EVERYWHERE for any reference to what Faith's mothers real name was and came up with nothing so I borrowed the first name of IMO the worse mother in Buffyverse history. 'Faith's mother said' etc was getting old, so she had to be named. :)

BTW- All fans of this story should check out my Christmas oneshot called "Faith, Hope and 'Santa's Naughty List'" that I've just put up… it takes place a couple of chapters from this one but isn't directly connected to this story, it was just for fun and…Christmas spirit? :P

* * *

Watching Faith devour entire plates of cookies and glasses of orange juice was NOT how Buffy had envisioned their play-date. "You'll get real sick if you eat like that." Buffy warned as Faith finished off her fourth plate while Joyce rushed in, replacing the missing food as if by magic. "You should go in for the Olympics." Buffy said in wonder. "The 'Cookie Monster' Olympics." Buffy clapped a hand over her mouth realizing she had just admitted to watching Sesame Street in front of Faith. She was about to launch into an explanation about how she 'only watched it with her little sister' when Faith spoke, clearly not seeing a problem with Buffy's TV habits.

"Om nom nom nom nom nom nom." Faith imitated the blue monster stuffing more cookies in her mouth, just happy she happened to know what Buffy was talking about. She had caught an episode back when their TV actually worked.

Buffy giggled, her blonde pigtails swinging back and forth. Wanting things to go her way, Buffy took the cookies away from an indignant Faith. "This is how we play now." Buffy announced, cookies in one hand, and dragging Faith over to a pink child-sized table with six seats, five of them occupied by stuffed animals with the prestigious pig Mr Gordo at the head of the table. Buffy surveyed her other animals for a moment and then making an executive decision, dragged Horton the stuffed elephant from his place. "Sorry Horton, Faith's here today." Buffy said, shrugging and seating Faith in the elephants vacated seat.

Scowling, Faith reached for another cookie.

"NO NO NO!" Buffy screeched horrified. "That's not the way this game works. You got to go around the table FIRST." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Screw that." Faith muttered but Buffy didn't seem to hear.

"Look, I'll show you." Buffy said helpfully. "Mr Gordo?" She gestured to the pig. "Can I interest you in a nice cup of 'tea' and some cookies?" She asked him holding up the jug of orange juice. "Why yes thanks, Buffy." She made the pig say back in a deep voice punctuated by a little grunt at the end.

Faith would admit, her little snort at the end was cute, but this whole thing was just ridiculous. Is this what happened when other girls invited you over? Faith felt conspicuous and out of place in the pastel pink painted room with the butterfly bedspread and stuffed animals and princess memorabilia spread throughout the room. Typical princess Buffy, Faith thought until Buffy distracted her again.

"Now you try with Hoopy the bear." Buffy said eagerly pushing the plate back towards Faith.

But Faith would have none of it. "This is bullshit, B!"

Buffy's eyes widened in surprise, that was definitely a bad word. Much worse than the 'hell' in saying 'Sunnyhell'.

"BULLSHIT!" Dawn echoed from the doorway, delighted to have a new dirty word to say. Buffy had no idea how long she's been standing there watching them.

"DAWN." She began, seeing her sister jump up and down with pure naughty glee on her face and forgetting about Faith for a minute,. "GET OUT!" she said in her older-better-than-you tone she reserved only for her.

"But Buffeeeeeeeee!" Dawn whined.

"Nah, B." Faith said thankful for a distraction from their 'tea party hell.' "Let Sunshine stay."

Dawn ran up to her new hero and threw Hoopy across the room stealing the cookie Faith had been made to 'offer' him. "Bullshit. Bullshit!" She said looking at Faith adoringly.

Buffy just rolled her eyes.

Faith stood up, forgetting the cookies for now. "Don't you know any REAL games?" she asked Buffy.

Buffy wrinkled her nose pouting. What was wrong with tea parties? "Like hide and seek or hopscotch?" she asked getting excited again.

"No." Faith said exasperated having no idea what those games ever were, being a child who has had to entertain herself with her own imagination her whole life. It wasn't like she'd had any friends to show her typical kid games in school. She sized Buffy up, wondering if she should let her in on her secret or not. She decided that because Buffy had let her eat a few plates of cookies before starting with that 'tea party shit' then she would. Food was generally the way to Faith's heart, since she very rarely got enough of it. "Before you started watching me up in that tree…" She said this all conspiracy-like. "I was pretending to be somewhere else. A place where I can always go when things get scary, where I'm always needed and accepted."

"Where's that?" Buffy asked in a whisper.

"I go there all the time – there's pirates with hooks for hands…" Faith grabbed the nearest coat hanger from Buffy's closet to demonstrate this. "And mermaids and man-eating crocodiles and Indians… and me. In Neverland its okay if you don't have a mommy or daddy that loves you. There are no parents to be mean at you and yell and you and tell you want to do, only pirates and those you can fight."

Buffy thought a life without parents sounded a little scary.

Faith continued. "There, I'm the best fighter of them all. I don't take nothing from anybody. I'm the only 'lost girl' in Neverland, and I'm never EVER going to grow up like 'them'. Faith said pointedly but vaguely.

Dawn was fascinated. She jumped up and down pulling on Faith's arm. "Neverland sounds way better than tea parties!" She squealed. "I wanna play!"

Buffy looked over at Faith who seemed guarded and unsure if she should have shared this with them. She smiled at her. "Can I be a lost girl too?" She asked shyly.

"No." Faith said quickly.

Buffy looked hurt. "Why not?" she asked.

Faith paused for a moment. "'Cause you've got people who love you always, and shit like that. Can't be lost if someone's always gonna find you."

Buffy clamped a hand over Dawn's mouth before she could start on the word 'shit' and then cast her eyes to the ground. Faith didn't want her to be part of her game.

"I know." Faith said suddenly. "You're Princess Tigerlily."

"A princess?" Buffy asked, cheering up.

"That's right. When Tigerlily gets hurt or captured by pirates, the whole lot of her Red Indian family are all worried about her, 'cause she's their little princess." Faith explained.

Buffy smiled. She liked that idea.

"And you, Sunshine." Faith looked down at Dawn. "Can be…" She didn't even manage to get the rest of her sentence out.

"TINKERBELL!" Dawn screamed, pretending to fly around the room.

"That's perfect for you." Faith exclaimed laughing. "Goes with your name."

Pleased as anything, Dawn pretended to blind Buffy with fairy-dust. "Hey, wait. How did you know there was a 'Tinkerbell' in Faith's game, Dawn?" Buffy asked her sister confused, not liking the attention Faith was giving her.

Dawn 'flew' into her room and retrieved a book. "Mommy read me, one night." She said.

"Peter Pan." Buffy read the title aloud and looked at Faith questioningly.

Faith shrugged. "He was the one who made the place famous. People don't know the stories about me that came afterwards." She said creatively, pulling out a slingshot made carefully with a craftsmanship beyond her young years. "I use this on all the bad guys, when I don't got a sword." She grabbed another coat hanger from Buffy's wardrobe and handed the end of it to Buffy and showed her how to sword-fight and then slipped some of Buffy's fairy wings over Dawn's shoulders and then delighted girl began to run circles around them.

"I'll be one of the pirates who will try to catch you so you can practice defending yourself." Faith told Buffy and advanced on her menacingly so Buffy giggled and fought her off.

Joyce stood in the doorway, watching her daughter and her new playmate play. She was the first of Buffy's friends to let Dawn in on their games, which pleased Joyce as she thought Buffy and her little sister should get on much better. Regretfully, Joyce called Faith over. "Faith, honey. Time to go home now. It's getting dark."

"AWWWW!" Whined Buffy and Dawn simultaneously.

Faith herself shrugged it off, trying not to let the disappointment show on her face. "Okay." She said to Joyce, sad to leave one of the happiest moments she had had in a long time.

"See you, lost girl!" called Buffy and Dawn.

"Later Tigerlily and Tinkerbell." Faith said following Joyce who walked her back to her broken home.


	4. You're IT!

Happy New Year, guys! :)

* * *

Buffy and Faith became fast friends. Dawn refused to take Buffy's fairy wings off, much to Buffy's anger. Dawn insisted she was a fairy now and they couldn't come off anyway, much like you can't just go pulling the wings off a butterfly. When Joyce took Dawn grocery shopping, all the ladies would laugh to see Dawn 'fly' up and down the aisles. Buffy threatened Dawn with every possible punishment she could think of, none of which had any effect as Dawn would just run behind Faith for protection.

To make up for always taking Dawn's side, Faith promised that today she was going to show Buffy and Buffy only, something 'very cool', that nobody else knew about. Buffy had awakened that morning so excited that she had spilt her alphabet cereal while attempting to have it for breakfast – twice, much to her father's annoyance, making him snap more than usual at Joyce at the breakfast table.

"Buffy, for heavens sake, SIT STILL!" he finally exploded, finally turning on his daughter as she dropped the spoon again with a clatter. Buffy just bounced up and down.

Joyce tried to explain that Buffy was excited about Faith's surprise, but Hank would have none of it. Finally after slipping a coat around her small shoulders, Joyce let Buffy go and she waited outside Faith's house.

She waited and waited on the doorstep, but there was no sign of Faith. Finally, she went back to her own mailbox looking for a tell-tale note to Faith's whereabouts like the ones that were always sent to her telling her when she wasn't going to be able to play that day. Buffy kept all of them.

They always said something silly like: "Dear TL, The pirates got me." Or "Fel in deep dark howl, can't get out til later." Faith's spelling wasn't great for her age, but Buffy didn't judge her for it. She couldn't imagine Faith sitting still long enough to learn something anyway.

Buffy didn't believe what the notes said of course. She just assumed Faith's mom wanted her to bake cookies or help around the house on those days and Faith didn't say 'cause she didn't want to ruin her bad girl 'rep'.

Buffy couldn't have been further from the truth.

Faith finally came running out of her house out of breath, her face flushed. "Let's go!" she yelled to Buffy panicked. "We've got to get out of here now!"

Bewildered, Buffy ran after her and the two scurried deep into the nearby woods and leaned against a tall tree, breathing hard with their hearts racing. It was then that Buffy noticed an enormous bruise forming on Faith's forehead, larger than any sort of bruise Buffy had yet seen in her short life.

"Did you get run over by a car?" She blurted out, touching a hand to Faith's forehead, worried for her friend. "Because if you did, we need to go to the hospital RIGHT now." She announced as if she herself could be the one to drive her.

Faith was about to lie and say she had just fallen down the stairs, but instead she admitted the closest thing she could to the truth. "A pirate got me… It was hook. He said 'I make too much noise, and deserve a good thrashing'." Her words tumbled out before she could stop them.

"In your own HOUSE?" Buffy said incredulously.

"That's right." Faith wanted to change the subject. "So how about I show you that…"

"YES!" Buffy interrupted excitedly forgetting to question Faith further.

Faith led Buffy through the woods, picking up a feather on the way to place in Buffy's headband. Since she had become an Indian princess, Buffy had lost about fifteen feathers in the time she had been playing with Faith, mostly when she attempted cartwheels and headstands. Buffy felt bad losing them, because Dawn never lost her fairy wings and Faith kept military track of her slingshot.

In a clearing, Faith stopped and pointed out something 'magical' to Buffy. "This is my special place." She said pointing to a half-built run-down tree house, which the previous owner had clearly abandoned unfinished a long time ago and soon forgotten about. It had the beginnings of a balcony, and holes in the walls that may have been intended to become windows. One side was even painted.

Buffy thought that this was the coolest thing she had ever seen. She had asked her Dad multiple times over the years to build her and Dawn something like this, but had always been ignored in favour of another argument with Joyce.

Buffy followed Faith up the tree, unused to climbing but finding it wasn't too hard for her and when she was at the top, she saw that Faith had furnished it like a second home. There were (probably) stolen blankets and pillows in the corner, an overturned box for a table, a torch and an old chipped toy box. "What's in there?" she asked.

"Weapons." Faith replied.

Cautiously Buffy bent down, and at a nod from Faith removed the lid and the first few layers of matchbox cars- Faith's favourite toys – to see some curious sticklike objects. Faith could see she was going to have to explain herself. "Buffy…" She began. "I haven't told you everything about Neverland. I told you about the pirates, but there are things much worse than that. They don't look like they belong here in our world, so I figured they have got to be from there. Once, I asked my mom whether they existed or not to see what she thought, but she didn't give me an answer." Faith frowned and her mind began to wander.

***

"_Mommy, are there vampires here in Sunnydale?"_

_Faith's mother looked at her four and a half year old daughter drunkenly. "Of course not, you stupid girl." She said scornfully._

"_But the, why did I see one? Faith asked, tugging on her mother's shirt but Catherine only swatted her away. "And why are they in my dreams?" _

"_Faith, I don't have time for this." Her mother said, wanting to get out of the house. Ed had left her again and she planned to chase him to his favourite club and make him an offer he couldn't refuse. "Go to sleep or something, will you?"_

"_But I can't sleep! They're in my dreams too!" Faith cried, her bottom lip trembling._

_Catherine just rolled her eyes. "Kids." With that done, she went out the door, staggering slightly and slammed it into Faith's face, ignoring the sounds of tiny fists trying to beats it down and her screaming she wanted to come too._

_***_

Faith was startled out of her flashback by Buffy's impatient voice. "What is it? What aren't you sure exists?

"Oh, I know they exist." Faith said flatly. "Vampires."

"Vampires?" Buffy shrieked.

"Vampires." Faith confirmed, pulling the ugliest face she could. "See, they look a little bit like this." She said baring her teeth and pulling her face in all different directions.

Buffy herself, currently had no knowledge of vampires, except that you could make yourself look like one with chopsticks.

"And they shouldn't be here, right?" Faith asked. "They should be in a fantasy land like Neverland, so I figured that maybe they escaped or got banished here." Faith was very proud of herself to know the word 'banished'.

Buffy, however, was looking quite scared and turning her head from side to side as if she expected a vampire to appear any second.

"No, no. Don't worry B." Faith said, sensing her concern. "I went all the way to the library and read a book about them. It said that there is no way a vampire can come out in the sun 'cause they'll explode… or something. So we're safe now."

Buffy breathed an enormous sigh of relief.

"And these things…" Faith gestured inside her toy box. "Are 'stakes', you got to hit them in the heart with one and that makes them explode too."

Buffy thought Faith seemed a bit too excited about exploding things in her opinion.

"I'm gonna explode one, one day." Faith announced grandly, proving Buffy's point.

Buffy remembered something she hadn't asked yet. "Faith…uh… when did you see one?"

Faith's smile faded. "You really want to know, B?"

Buffy nodded slowly.

Faith's voice dropped to a whisper as she told her story. "I had to run away this one time and I made it all the way to the station. It was really dark and I didn't have any money so I thought that maybe I could sneak on a bus if I got behind some really tall person. So I was waiting and hiding behind a ticket stand. The bus pulled up and there was nobody to get on it with me, but this one guy stepped off carrying a little boy under his arm. At first I just ignored them, even though the guy smelt really bad, almost as bad as my mums cooking." Faith paused and made a disgusted face. "But then, he just threw the little boy down on the ground and that was when I saw his face, but it wasn't up close so it didn't scare me too much." Faith bared her teeth again, and Buffy got the message. Vampire.

"I didn't know what a vampire was at the time though, so I thought he was just a really ugly and mean dad who was making his kid sleep on the street. Anyway, he left, and after about ten minutes when he didn't come back, I went over to the little boy and he was pale and cold and lying face down. He smelt bad too, and flies were buzzing around him. I didn't want him to have his face pressed into the hard pavement all night while he was sleeping so I turned him over and then I saw that his ninja turtle's shirt wasn't supposed to be red." Faith's voice broke. "It was blood, and I knew that the guy had done something to him, maybe hit him too hard so he was dead. The blood wasn't fresh and it looked like he had died days ago and the man just wanted to get rid of him for some reason. So, I backed off and saw the bus driver hadn't pulled away yet and the driver wasn't at the wheel. I figured I could just sneak in and get away from all this, so I got on and sat in the back row, wondering why none of the five or so people in the seats in front of me were moving or talking to each other. I thought they might be all tired because it was so late, until I noticed a sticky puddle and something dripping down some of the seats. I got up and noticed that they're shirts were all red too, just like the little boys was, only this blood was fresh. I wanted to run home then, I was scared. Something very bad had happened here tonight. But before I could get off the bus, the little boy was there blocking the doorway. At first I was so happy…"

***

"_You're alright!!" Faith exclaimed joyfully to the small figure in front of her. "I thought that big ugly man hurted you. It looked like you were dead!" _

_He just stared back at her evilly, leering at her from where he stood._

_Faith stared back. His face was just as ugly as his 'dads', maybe it ran in the family. _

"_I've never been better. Hey, you wanna play tag?" he asked. His face moved into the most horrible thing Faith had ever seen. "I'm IT." He announced, his face splitting into a smile_

_Faith screamed piercingly and it echoed into the night._

_***_

"I didn't know it then, but now I realize he had been turned into a vampire. The scariest thing about vampires is that they can look just like us for as long as they want, but then they change…" Faith started shaking.

Buffy just stared at Faith, shocked and horrified, for one that vampires exist and two that Faith had had to go through all that. She could see how much it cost Faith to tell that story to her and how close to tears she was. Buffy was sniffling too.

"I ran like hell home, I knew the town better than he did, so it wasn't hard to lose him through all the shortcuts. He was even smaller than you, Buffy, he had no chance of catching me. I know it wasn't his fault though, the last thing he'd really remember before he died and the demon took over, was pain. That vampire drained the life from his body, and he made sure he'd wake up a demon like him. I...I... just want to 'get one back' for what happened to that little boy." Faith said brokenly.

The playful mood of make-believe and childhood innocence, was gone, and neither child wanted to play anymore games today. As Faith finally allowed herself to cry, Buffy moved to sit beside her and laid her head on her shoulder squeezing her hand, completely oblivious how much that simple gesture that Faith had never had before, meant to the dark haired girl.


	5. Life with Faith

Okay, this chapter probably requires some explanation. It occurs simultaneously to the one after it which will be called 'Life with Buffy." It's just meant to show really obviously how different their lives are and add more explanation to their characters before I get into more of the plot.

I totally love all the reviews I'm getting for this. Big inspiration to update. :)

* * *

It was one of those days again. One of those horrible-bad-no good-bloody-hell-oh shit sort of days, Faith thought, stringing as many swear words as she could together. Thankfully it was almost over. Faith had been hiding in her mother's wardrobe for the main part of the day, ignoring the sounds that went on around her. At only seven years old, she really didn't understand the reason why her mother was crying so hard. Ed had left them again last night, but that was normal. He'd be back in a day or so. Faith thought that the reason he was gone, had to be because her mother was sick. Really sick.

Catherine hated having to bother with Faith when she wasn't feeling well, so Faith thought maybe Ed felt the same way about her mother. Faith had come into the wardrobe looking for her mother's medicine, but she hadn't been able to find the white tablets that her mother sometimes kept in here in a box under a pile of clothes. The medicine made her happy… well a little or a lot crazy first, but things had to get worse before they got better, right?

"_What's this mommy?" asked four year old Faith curiously holding up a jar of pills and a packet of white powder. _

"_It's my stash of …medicine, Faithy." Catherine said. "Pass it back over here, will you?"_

_Faith did, and Catherine was about to inhale some of the contents of the bag, but then she paused, stopping to look into Faith's wide innocent eyes which were looking up at her so trustingly. "It's not for you okay?" She said gruffly. "It works on me, only. It's the sort of medicine that makes the people it's not meant for get sick. Got it?" _

_Faith nodded._

"_Good."_

Faith had thought of trying it lots of times. Every time she herself got really sick and no-one was around to help her, she would think about the idea that maybe it might help her feel better too, and her mother was wrong. But she'd seen what happened to her mom when she needed it and didn't have any, and it frightened her. If she tried any, then there would be less for her mother.

"Faith…" Catherine moaned coming into the room, her voice scratchy from crying and throwing up. "Where are you?"

Faith went silent immediately and stopped wiggling around trying to get the circulation back to her feet.

"Come on… There's got to be some somewhere. Help me look…please?" Catherine pleaded, sure that her daughter was somewhere nearby.

Faith reluctantly stepped out of the cupboard. She was afraid of what would happen if she didn't find it. People could die if they didn't get the right medicine when they were sick.

"Oh…there you are." Catherine said, her usual annoyance with her daughter temporarily gone. She needed Faith's eyes to search, especially as everything was blurry before her own.

"I already checked that cupboard." Faith announced.

"Under my bed?" Catherine questioned.

"Yep."

"Bedside table?"

"Twice."

"Bathroom cabinet?"

"Yes, mom."

"Top kitchen cabinet?"

Faith hesitated. "…No."

Catherine gave her a look that didn't have much patience so Faith ran down the stairs to the kitchen, dragging a wobbly stool under the cabinet. She shakily stood up and tried to catch the handle to open it, but she wasn't quite tall enough. She jumped up and waved her hand at the handle, just brushing against it but unable to get a firm grip. Her landing wasn't so perfect either, and she fell with a crash to the floor.

"FAITH!" Catherine yelled down at her as Faith blinked back tears, rubbing at a bruise already starting to form. "Hurry the hell up!" she barked.

Faith tried again adding a worn phonebook to the stools height and this time, although swaying dangerously, she was able to open the cabinet door and retrieve a ¾ empty packet of leftover 'medicine' that had been stashed there.

Faith grabbed it and ran back to her mother who took it without a word of thanks. Faith went to her room, closed the door and lay down on her bed. She didn't want to be near her mother when the medicine made her crazy. If Faith followed her mother when she was that way, she was likely to end up on the roof, scraping her arms and legs trying to keep her mother from falling off or similar things that ended in pain. Faith squeezed her eyes shut and closing the scene out, she began to dream.

Faith was in another place, another time. She was much taller than her usual three feet and dressed to the nines in medieval garb. A British man was speaking to her from a few metres away, telling her to block with her left. Block what? Faith wondered. THUMP. Oh… that, obviously.

A vampire was behind her and appeared to be doing combat with her, but she was calm, not scared like a little girl would or should be. She spoke, speaking words she did not yet understand and certainly hadn't been thinking. "This is a message for Kakistos." Faith said, staking the vampires main minion deftly, somehow knowing whoever this Kakistos was, he would notice and know she was responsible and not be at all happy. "Good job, Mary-Claire." Her watcher said with a forced impersonal and proper tone to his voice.

"Did I not stake him well, sir?" Faith said pleased.

"You did so indeed, malady." another voice behind her said, this one deep and gravelly. "Mary-Claire." It teased. "It seems I got your message straight away."

A wash of sudden fear came over Faith and she almost fell to her knees. Strange thoughts flooded her, all meaning the same thing: She wasn't ready for this.

"Many a slayer, I have killed before you, and many more I shall kill after your pathetic death." He smacked his lips together. "I will also slaughter and eat your watcher as my dessert." He added as an afterthought.

Faith tried to struggle in Mary's body, but it was if she was paralyzed with fear. She felt hot tears fall down her cheeks as Kakistos put his old wizened vampiric hands around her throat.

"You're too easy, I almost won't even enjoy this." He murmured. "'Almost' being the operative word." He gestured to her watcher, who was staring at the scene powerless and wide-eyed, and as if trying to weigh up his options unable to get his vampiric mind to think clearly, he paused. "Usually, I do it the other way around and let the slayer see her watcher die before I kill her. But once in a while, I guess I like a change." He bared his teeth and leaned down to Faith/Mary. "Sweet dreams."

His fingers tightened around her neck and began to twist her head around. Faith was in agony, yet she could not speak. Just as the pain became too much for her to bear, her eyes flicked open and she sat bolt upright in bed, panting and crying with her own fingers wrapped around her throat.

This wasn't the first 'slayer dream' she'd had, not that she knew that term yet, or understood why she had the dreams in the first place. She didn't call out for her mother. She had learned long ago, that Catherine Lehane didn't care when she was scared, or hungry or alone. But, she thought as she shakily climbed out of bed, maybe Buffy might care, and understand this. She stood by her window. Buffy's light was on.

Faith raised a hand to the glass and pressed her palm flat, a silent message to Buffy that she needed her and she was reaching out to her. Faith was shocked when a few moments later, Buffy was standing by her own window too, her hand on the glass mirroring Faith's gesture. The silent support meant everything to Faith and although Buffy couldn't see her face and she couldn't see Buffy's, she smiled.

"You're my best friend in the world, Buffy." She whispered. They stayed like that for what seemed like ages, until Faith saw Joyce pull Buffy away from the window.


	6. Life with Buffy

Buffy didn't know where Faith was today. She had checked up every tree in the vicinity of their houses but she was too afraid to go into the woods by herself and check out the tree house. She was too afraid of getting lost.

She kicked herself for being such a baby. Faith wasn't afraid of going by herself, in fact, Buffy bet anything that Faith was playing some great new game right now, without her.

Seeing Buffy was moping around, Joyce had decided to have a 'Summer's girls day' minus Dawn who had gone to their Aunt Arlene's to stay for a while. Joyce and Buffy had played board games, Barbies, they had blown bubbles and even walked to the park together. It had been a great day full of bonding and laughter, but Buffy couldn't shake the thought that Faith might be in BIG trouble. There wasn't even a poorly spelled note left in Buffy's mailbox telling her she couldn't play this time. To Joyce's amusement, Buffy had been running out to the mailbox to check between games of 'Guess Who' and 'Monopoly'.

"Christmas presents from Grandma won't come till Christmas, you know." Joyce reminded Buffy after the fourth time she did it.

"I know." Buffy assured her, leaving Joyce confused about Buffy's behaviour.

Night was falling and Joyce had offered to read Buffy a story and like the past several nights Buffy ran to get Dawn's copy of 'Peter Pan', determined to find a mention of the bad vampires in it that Faith had missed. Finding this would not only prove that they really did come from Neverland, but more importantly she wanted to find evidence that they were homesick and likely to go home soon. Buffy wasn't too sure about this theory though, because she hardly felt homesick herself anymore. She liked Sunnydale, this house, Faith, the playground she visited today, and she hardly missed Kimberly and Cassandra anymore at all.

Joyce settled Buffy beside her in her princess bed, putting her arms around her daughter and beginning to read. Buffy laid her head on her mother's shoulder and scanned the pages for the word 'vampire', skipping ahead as her mother read. She forgot to do this however when Joyce reached the chapter about Tigerlily getting captured by the pirates. Buffy grew more and more excited as she imagined herself being brave and standing up to the pirates like Tigerlily had.

Although instead of being rescued by Peter Pan, she saw Faith's face as brave as ever, shooting rocks with her slingshot to distract the enemies, then swimming out to where she was tied to a post in the water and rescuing her.

Faith was a better hero – she would have saved that little boy at the bus station, if she could have, Buffy thought. Why should Peter…

"Why does Peter Pan get all the attention?" Buffy said aloud as Joyce finished the chapter and gently closed the book.

"I don't know honey, maybe because he can fly and that makes him special." Joyce said searching for an answer for her daughter.

"But Tinkerbell can fly too." Buffy pointed out. "I think that the whole book should be written about the lost girl."

"The lost girl?" Joyce asked. "I only remember the lost 'boys', Buffy."

"No, mom. There's a lost girl." Buffy insisted.

"So there is." Joyce said, vaguely remembering back to the game she had seen her daughter play.

"Mom, is it true to be a lost girl, you got to be lost and have nobody love you?"

Joyce didn't know what to say to this, she knew Faith didn't have a perfect home life, she had seen the little girl's ragged clothing and thin appearance and knew how difficult it was for her to relate to her own pampered daughter. "That might be so." Joyce finally said sadly.

"Then I shouldn't tell her then." Buffy said lying back on her pillow.

"Tell her what, dear?" Joyce asked tucking her in.

"That I love her." Buffy said decidedly. "That I love Faith, 'cause otherwise she won't be able to be a lost girl anymore and we won't be able to play.

Joyce smiled warmly at her daughter's affection for her friend. "Somehow, I don't think she's quite ready to hear that yet anyway, Buffy." She said leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. "But…" Joyce added. "You can write a book about her all by yourself, no need to mention Peter Pan at all. It can be the true story of 'the lost girl'."

"Will you help me?" Buffy asked sleepily.

"Of course I will honey." Joyce said smiling at her daughter one last time and turning off the lights, leaving on her piglet shaped nightlight and then she left the room leaving Buffy to dream.

***

"You stay here." Buffy told a young Robin Wood who was crouching behind a gravestone. Buffy figured that this was a game, and one of her regular childlike dreams, even though she was much taller in this one.

She had never had a slayer dream before.

"But moooom." The little boy whined to Buffy. "I can fight good too! Mom?"

Buffy remembered back to the old happy-families roleplaying games she used to play with Kimberly and Cassandra. She had never much liked being the mom, but it was better than having to be the Dad and yell at her friends the whole time and see them give her funny looks for the rest of recess.

Buffy had a sense that she was dreaming about someone's life who was old- not really in the physical sense of the word, but with an older mentality. Someone who had seen the worst of the world and survived more disasters than she had thought was possible, and was living on what she considered to be 'borrowed time'.

An enormous slimy demon with several sets of eyes appeared in front of her and she desperately wanted to scream, but instead she felt only a fierce protectiveness to the little boy in front of her who kept calling her 'mom'. She fought the demon with practiced ease, attacking the fiend and gouging out all its eyes and blinding it. Buffy was horrified. This was GROSS! She wanted to be sick. But her fists wouldn't stop, they kept pounding the demon into a mass of demon goo. Behind her, little Robin cheered and a feeling of accomplishment rushed through Buffy that wasn't her own.

It was short lived, as the scene changed and this time she was on a subway train, pinned down by a white haired man. The cocky mood of the first scene was gone, and replaced by the terror of a slayer who knew this was her last moments. Buffy wondered what would happen to the little boy, Robin.

She got a good look at the man's face, it was almost every bit as Faith described it. This was a vampire. His fangs were stained with blood and he laughed, his mouth turning into a soulless smile and he reached for her neck…

Buffy awoke in a cold sweat screaming, hollering as loud as she could for her mother. Joyce, who was terrified that someone had broken into the house to harm her daughter, ran as fast as she could up the stairs to Buffy's room and snapped on the light. She relaxed immediately when she saw Buffy was alone, although she noticed that her sheets had been thrown off her bed and all her stuffed animals were in disarray. Buffy was clutching Mr Gordo tightly, shaking violently. As soon as she saw her mother she began to cry.

"Oh, Buffy…" Joyce said sympathetically. "Did you have a nightmare sweetheart?"

Buffy nodded her head, unable to speak.

Joyce pulled her into her arms. "Was it some beasties that go bump in the night?"

Buffy jerked her head up and down again, glad that her mother understood.

"Well, they just aren't real okay? They're all in your head." Joyce said gently.

Buffy frowned. Maybe her mother didn't understand after all. But at least she was here with her. Joyce held Buffy until she stopped crying, whispering comforting noises into her ear, and then tucked her back into bed.

"Night, Buffy. You just tell those nasties to stay away, or big bad Mom will take a broom…or an axe to them, alright?" Joyce joked, smoothing Buffy's hair and leaving the light on for her. "Just this once." Joyce said gesturing to the bright glow and going back to bed.

Buffy immediately felt scared again. She didn't want to be alone. She moved over to her window and a wave of calmness spread over her when she saw Faith awake and standing with her hand pressed to the window of her room. How did she know? Buffy wondered, mirroring the gesture.

Buffy felt safe with Faith watching over her and smiled even though she knew Faith couldn't see her. "You're my best friend in the whole entire world, Faith." Buffy mouthed to her, unaware that Faith was whispering those exact same words.

Buffy could have stayed there connected to Faith all night, but Joyce soon came in to check on her, and not seeing what her daughter was looking at, she pulled Buffy away from the window. Away from Faith, who understood her and would always keep her safe.


	7. Sleepover

Don't worry charmedloverloes, I won't be separating them for a while now. :)

Thanks to all reviewers ESPECIALLY Blackie, charmedloverloes, Cliodhna, Hio, Hotcutii3, I'mAnOverachiever, Ryoko05 and Seventh Theory who I'm pretty sure have all reviewed more than once. :P

You guys are the reason I make time for this thing which seems to be getting longer and longer since I'm nowhere near the end.

* * *

A week had gone by since Buffy and Faith had dreamed about the slayers of old, and both had related their stories to each other more than once. To cheer Buffy up, Faith had told Buffy the plot of 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and explained that they were lucky vampires couldn't 'do a Freddy Kruger', but somehow talking about another scary thing, just made the original scary thing seem worse.

Buffy did appreciate Faith being there for her though. Every time Buffy tried to talk seriously about vampires to her mother, Joyce would immediately change the subject like she couldn't deal with having a daughter who seemed to think about them all the time. Joyce would race for the TV and turn it to cartoons, or grab Dawn insisting she was filthy and needed a bath. Faith however, would sit patiently and listen to Buffy's fears and what she thought it meant that they were both having these dreams at once.

"It's got to be a sign." Buffy would say seriously, quoting the spiritual section in her mother's women's life magazines.

Faith privately thought that she herself always had the nightmares because she was crazy and a bad girl who hadn't tried hard enough to save the little boy and was being punished for it, and figured Buffy was having them because she was spending too much time around her. As Faith saw it, she had a way of turning 'everything to shit', just like her mother would always tell her.

She hoped Buffy wouldn't figure this out, at least for a while.

On the other hand though, Buffy's nightmares WERE scary and Faith knew that unlike her own brain which was capable of some very dark thoughts, she knew Buffy's wasn't made that way, so she wasn't entirely ready to give up on Buffy's theory that the dreams were a 'sign' or at least an indication that the vampires had developed new powers of mind like dream invasion and if that was the case, Faith would do anything to protect her friend. She would even fight them herself if she had to.

Faith couldn't stand Buffy being scared, so she kept busy devising new weapons. She sharpened pointy sticks with a pair of sewing scissors and even took a walk to the local church and asked a bewildered priest to bless a couple of bottles of water that she stole from a store (which was okay because it was for an honorable cause). Tomorrow night, when she was ready she planned to go back to the bus station when Buffy was asleep and kill any vampires that looked like they might have some magic mind control tricks. Any vampires with pointy wizard hats and wands were dead meat as far as Faith was concerned.

Aware that she might not live through the experience, Faith wanted to spend her 'last' night having a sleepover with Buffy up in their tree-house.

Buffy didn't mind of course, anything to hang out with Faith. But she was a little scared. In the tree-house AT NIGHT? But still, Faith was there, and they had torches and besides Faith slept there all the time anyway so it must be safe.

The hardest part was convincing Buffy's mum to let Buffy stay at 'Faith's house' for the night. If Joyce had not had a fight with Hank infront of Buffy again this morning and was already feeling guilty, then Buffy's big pleading eyes may not have had the same effect. Joyce had reasoned with herself that her daughter was only next door, and even if Catherine started acting less than wholesome, Buffy only had to basically step outside to find her mother. Besides, Joyce wanted her to spend time with her little friend. Buffy was introducing Faith to real friendship and Faith was showing Buffy a world away from the boybands and superficial nonsense that her other friends constantly talked about.

Joyce considered both of the girls to be having a positive effect on each other and she had grown very fond of young Faith.

Faith arrived at Buffy's door at about 4pm and Buffy breathlessly ran down the stairs as Faith rang the door bell hesitantly. Joyce opened the door before Buffy could get there and smiled at the small girl warmly, handing her and her daughter a three course box of snacks each, just incase Faith's mom might 'forget' to make them dinner. Faith beamed like she always did at the sight of Joyce's offered cooking but Buffy just rolled her eyes, thinking her mother was totally overprotective, but secretly looking forward to her chocolate chip cookies.

Faith and Buffy waved to Joyce and walked to Faith's house. "Is she still watching us?" Faith asked Buffy standing on the doorstep to her own house, not wanting to take Buffy inside even for a moment to keep up the pretense that they were staying there.

Buffy confirmed that she was, and Faith sighed, putting a shaking hand on her doorknob, hoping Buffy wouldn't tread on any of the broken glass on the floor.

The girls were about to step inside when suddenly they heard a shrill Dawn-sounding screech and Joyce's head instantly disappeared from the window where she had been watching.

Faith grinned. The pint-sized summers rocked. "Come on Tigerlily." She said grabbing Buffy's hand and her overnight bag with the other. "We are so out of here."

As they ran into the woods hand in hand, Buffy had to laugh at Faith's over-excited expression which made her look the age she really was, instead of way beyond her years like usual. She herself was nervous but excited, aware she was breaking the rules but too much in the moment to care.

The girls reached the tree-house and had a friendly argument over what 'sleepovers' meant. Buffy was convinced that it meant she had an open invitation to do Faith's wild tangled hair and paint her nails like she did with Kimberly and Cassandra.

Faith, basing the info on a few sketchy accounts from boyish adventure books thought it meant fancy shadow puppet torch light shows and scary stories. Eventually, they compromised.

After Buffy learned that this was Faith's first sleepover she had asked her 'why' and couldn't understand why Faith said she didn't have any friends and she had never been invited to one. Buffy had been certain that Faith would have been the most popular girl in her class, because she was 'so cool'.

Faith agreed to let Buffy style her hair, but no makeup which was an offer Buffy accepted seeing as it was Faith's very first sleepover, and one had to get used to these things.

Faith also agreed to leave out the ghost stories that she had stayed up late making up the other night. Buffy had enough horrors in her mind right now. Hell, Faith did too but that was different, according to her.

An hour later, Faith's hair had been tamed and brushed by a persistent Buffy and within another hour, it was braided into 'zillions' of little braids and Buffy was now sitting back admiring her handiwork pulling a mirror out of her bag so Faith could see too.

Faith had to admit, she did feel different looking all neat and princess-y after her 'Buffy makeover'. She tried not to smile too much about it in attempt to keep her rep intact. But the fact was though, that for a moment here right now she felt like a completely different person. Someone more normal like Buffy was. She looked over at her friend. Buffy was piling makeup on her face, completely overdoing the blush.

"What?" Buffy asked when Faith looked at her strangely. "If you won't let me 'make-up you' I can at least 'make-up me'."

Faith suppressed a grin. Buffy might be good at hair, but she sure sucked at make-up. Buffy added the final touches of glitter on her cheeks and Faith turned their torches on because it was getting dark and made butterfly shadow puppets. Buffy laughed and tried to mimic them with her own hands, but found she wasn't quite as coordinated with them as Faith was who had spent many nights making them on her walls to distract herself from Catherine and Ed's screaming.

Faith attempted Mr Gordo to please her which came out as more of a mangled version, and Buffy made a fist, insisting it was one of Joyce's chocolate chip cookies which was as far as Buffy knew, one of Faith's favourite things.

That reminded the girls of their snack boxes, so they had a 'midnight feast' as Buffy insisted on calling it, even though it was nowhere near midnight.

They were just finishing off the last couple and Buffy had cheekily thrown a few at Faith hitting her square in the nose, although Faith wouldn't retaliate because that would mean she would have to sacrifice some as artillery. Besides, every time Buffy threw one at her it meant she had an extra cookie so why would she fight that?

Both girls stopped still when they heard a scuffle. It sounded as though something heavy was coming towards them, crunching down leaves not caring who knew it was there. The girls stiffened and Faith switched off a couple of the torches so their presence would not be so obvious to the stranger. "This has never happened before." Faith was whispering. "Nobody comes here, it's always been safe."

Buffy just looked terrified and Faith felt horrible for putting her in danger. Bravely she peered out the window. The roof of the tree-house stopped the moonlight from coming in, so without torches it was quite dark inside. With her head out of the window, Faith could see things much clearer. There was a lone vampire in the distance coming their way, slowing but menacingly. He didn't appear to have seen them yet, but he surely would if he got much closer. Faith pulled her head back inside and crouched beside Buffy taking her hand.


	8. Slayer Sisters

"B, listen." Faith whispered. "There's a vamp out there and I bet it's him. I bet that's the wizard-vampire that's been making us dream crazy dreams. Why else would he be all the way out here. He's been keeping tabs on us for sure! He must have followed us here…and… ma-maybe he's even the same vamp that killed the little boy at the station to." Faith's voice broke, but Buffy didn't notice and just looked up at her lost girl leader for help.

"What are we going to do?" Buffy asked, afraid.

"Kill him." Faith answered, sounding more confident than she truly felt. "We're going to kick his ass and kill him."

"Kick his ass." Buffy repeated doubtfully.

"You betcha. KICK HIS ASS!" Faith said in the loudest cheerleader-style whisper she dared, hoping that would get Buffy on board.

Suddenly Buffy smiled. "I'm in. Let's go get him."

"Great!" Faith said sounding very relieved. She reached behind her for her safety box of weapons and handed plenty of ammo to Buffy. She paused for a moment, and then leaned forward to whisper her plan in Buffy's ear. Faith was good at thinking of ways to get herself out of trouble, and tonight was no exception.

Minutes later, both girls were peeking out the window and they saw the vampire was practically upon them.

"Now!" Faith stage whispered, climbing half way down the leaning ladder that allowed them access to their hideout. Buffy remained perched at the top.

Faith pulled out her slingshot and whizzed a rock by the vampires head. It immediately turned to look in their direction, it had known it had smelt a live human scent. Unknown to the girls however, it was young and inexperienced having just been sired and it hadn't yet learned to pinpoint the exact location of smells like its elders.

"Buffy!" Faith hissed trying to get on with the plan.

In her haste, Buffy managed to dump a whole bottle of holy water down the tree, missing the approaching vampire completely and drenching Faith.

"B." Faith said exasperatedly.

"Sorry!" Buffy called down and took aim with a second bottle, and this time hit the vamp.

It screamed out in pain reeling back, its fangs glowing in the moonlight. Faith saw their chance and they each launched a stake with two of Faith's slingshots which bounced off the vamp with neither the aim nor the power to do any damage.

"Shit! Let's go to Plan B!" Faith called to Buffy over the screams of the smoldering vampire who continued to burn away. "You get the legs, I'll get the head." She said generously and leapt the rest of the way down the ladder, falling directly on top of the vampire, pinning him down by his neck by wrapping her legs around him as he flailed against her. She glared at him and pushed his bumpy forehead down with her hands.

Buffy quickly followed Faith down, much more carefully of course, and sat down on his kicking legs. She wasn't stupid. She knew he was much stronger than she was, but she hoped he was in enough pain that they could keep him controlled for a while. She passed Faith a stake and Faith tried in vain to push it through the vampire's tough flesh and failed miserably every time.

The vampire, seeing what she was trying to do, raised its head up with difficulty and tried to sink its teeth into her arm.

Faith yelped, but was smart enough not to give up her hold. The bite stung, but it was still relatively superficial as the vamp wasn't at the best angle for arm-biting. It looked far worse than it was.

The vampire, having tasted her blood began to get excited. "Slayer's blood!" It hissed, licking its lips. "Slayer…you." It looked at Faith with a predatory smile, like the one Kakistos had shown her in her dream.

This stirred something in Faith. "I'm not strong enough, but maybe if we try to stake him together!" She called out desperately to Buffy.

Buffy moved up the vamps body and was immediately scratched by one of the vamps claws. Buffy tried to be strong and not cry. She wasn't as used to pain as Faith was. Together, they grabbed a stake and positioned it over the vampires heart and Buffy put her hands over Faith's and pushed with all the strength she had.

Soon enough, with four little hands worth of strength the stake pierced the vampires body and he fell silent.

Buffy cheered. "We did it Faith!" she cried.

"No no… B." Faith said wisely. "He's meant to explode and be dust, remember? We must have missed the heart."

Together the girls grabbed another stake and jammed it to the right of the first one that was sticking out of the vampire like a tent pole. The creature roared. These were two 'helpless little girls'. Surely he should be able to beat them. So what, if he had tasted one and found slayers blood. She wasn't the slayer yet, and maybe she never would be. She could still be eliminated. The other one was stronger than she looked too, it was possible that she also had slayer's blood.

This was his last thought.

The stake finally found his heart, sliding in easier than the first time. He exploded, and the girls landed with a bump in a pile of dust where he had been. Exhausted, but exhilarated they lay back on the ground panting, almost unable to believe what had just happened.

As soon as she had caught her breath, Faith sat up and looked at Buffy to see if she was okay. She felt all fired up, happy to have succeeded in killing the thing that she assumed had been haunting her for what seemed like forever. Finally in her mind she had avenged the little boy's death. What she had done had felt so right, but she realized without Buffy there she would have been vamp food. She couldn't do this alone, not until she was stronger anyhow. Even a tough girl like her needed backup.

Although Buffy hadn't been just 'backup'. She had kicked ass, just as much ass as Faith had. So why wasn't she smiling anymore?

Buffy was whimpering, holding her injured arm to her body. In all the excitement, Faith had quite forgotten that they had 'gotten hurt'.

"It's okay, B. Let me see." Faith said smiling the gentle smile she reserved only for Buffy.

'It kind of hurts." Buffy said, trying to be brave seeing that Faith's wound was bleeding much more than hers was.

"It's not too bad." Faith consoled her. "And hey, we killed that vampire! He's gone now. No more dreams. And he can't hurt anymore people now, thanks to us!"

Buffy looked a little happier at that, but she was still shooting glances at her arm.

"He called me a slayer." Faith said softly. "What does that mean?"

"I think it means to be like a superhero and kill bad guys." Buffy said hesitantly recalling the word 'slay' being used in all its past and present forms on a class spelling test and one of the boys asking what it meant.

"We're like… 'vampire slayers' then." Faith decided. "You were wonderful, Buffy. For a princess especially. I couldn't have done it without you."

"Really?" Buffy finally smiled.

"You know, I think we're sort of meant to do this." Faith added.

Buffy wasn't sure. She just wanted to be a normal girl and play Neverland with Faith all day long. Although she couldn't forget the sense of righteous power she had felt turning that vamp to dust, so she nodded at Faith. "It was scary, but it did feel right." She said finally.

"We'll make a pact." Faith decided. "We don't tell anyone else about tonight, 'cause they'll think we're crazy.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak.

"Not even Joyce, and especially not Dawn." Faith added before Buffy could ask "And one day will come when we're bigger and stronger. So then we'll come back here and go in that direction." Faith pointed to where the vampire had come from. "And we'll stake some more of them, same way as we did tonight so they can't kill anymore innocent people."

Buffy nodded. "So long as you always take the head where the fangs are."

Faith grinned. "Anything for you, Princess T."

Buffy held out her arm. "Blood slayer sisters forever." She announced expectantly at Faith who looked confused.

"Whaddaya mean B?"

"It's a thing." Buffy said patiently. "Where I mix my blood with your blood and it makes us like sisters, like each a half of a whole so you'll always be connected to me and I'll always be connected to you."

Faith liked that idea a lot. She wanted so much to feel like Buffy's sister, part of her family. She held out her own arm and touched the bloody part to Buffy's wound as Buffy seriously surveyed their linked arms. "I think it worked." She said decidedly.

Both girls slowly moved apart and regarded each other with a new sense of connectivity. Buffy broke the silence. "Do you think if we went back to your house, your mommy would give us bandaids?"

"I don't think so." Faith said thinking it over, understanding that after everything that had just happened, Buffy probably didn't want to sleep in the treehouse. And to be honest Faith didn't either. She didn't think they could handle another vampire attack tonight. "I bet your mom would though, and we could finish the sleepover at your house?"

Buffy brightened considerably, she had been afraid to ask for that and sound like a baby.

"I know my way back through the dark." Faith said confidently and they packed up all of Buffy's things, her makeup and hair bows, Mr Gordo and all. Faith took Buffy's hand and led her back through the woods back to Buffy's house and they rang the doorbell.

Within seconds, Joyce appeared in her nightdress. She took one look at the girls and instantly began fussing. "What on earth happened to you both?" She asked worriedly pulling them inside.

"I had a fight with a stray cat!" Buffy said, pointing to her scratched arm "…and Faith." Buffy thought fast. "…Fell over on a …barbeque fork."

"A barbeque fork?" Joyce exclaimed. "Why were you playing with that, girls?"

"We went outside to get something and then all this happened." Faith said clearly uncomfortable making Buffy lie to her mom.

"Well girls, you sure have been in the wars!" Joyce said using one of her typical old expressions.

"You can say that again!" Buffy and Faith both said at the same time and then turned to giggle at each other.

Joyce cleaned them both up and insisted Faith wear an outfit of Buffy's to sleep in because hers was still quite damp from Buffy's holy water mishap.

Faith protested, but was met with not only Buffy's giggles, but one of Joyce's stern motherly looks.

Soon, Faith was dressed in a pink nightgown and according to Joyce looked 'positively adorable' especially since she still had her 'Buffy makeover' hairdo of many braids.

When neither Joyce nor Buffy were looking, Faith twirled in front of Buffy's mirror feeling as pretty as could be.

Joyce made up their beds side by side and insisted that they go to bed right now as it was past 10:30. Both tired and happy to oblige they crawled under the covers, Mr Gordo in between them.

"Night slayer-sis." Buffy said sleepily and Faith just smiled. This had definitely been the scariest and best night of her life all at the same time.

"Night, B." Faith whispered back and within seconds both girls were fast asleep.

* * *

Stay tuned! Next update I'm sending them to summer camp and they will meet some of the other residents of Sunnydale. :)


	9. Cereal Wars

The chapter got to be -way- too long so I split it into two. Expect the next update to be really long…more interesting and up soon because I've almost finished typing it. :D

* * *

Summer was ending soon and Buffy was NOT looking forward to going back to Los Angeles, back to Hemery Elementary – and away from Faith. She had never been able to find the right time to tell Faith that she was only staying here for the summer, as far as Faith knew she was here for good.

The longer she left it, the harder it had become and although she hadn't directly lied to Faith, Buffy was smart enough to know that what she hadn't said mattered.

Joyce was experiencing similar issues. Sunnydale had some great people that she had met at the art gallery, and to be honest she would rather work here rather than at her old job back in LA. But as usual, when Joyce suggested that they might stay here in Sunnydale, it was Hank who became angry. He hadn't wanted to move here on assignment anyway, the project didn't pay as much as he was used to and his temporary boss hated his guts. He wouldn't have taken the job on, but he had wanted to get ahead with his regular boss and maybe be considered for a promotion. The work hours here were long, and Hank was more miserable than he'd ever been, and felt only moderately guilty staring at his young secretary while having thoughts of being unfaithful to Joyce and hurting both her and his daughters. Every time Joyce pushed him about living here Hank would shout 'Well it's me or Sunnydale, Joyce!' Privately Joyce was beginning to think that the second option was becoming more appealing, but she couldn't leave Hank, could she?

He was Buffy and Dawn's father and Joyce needed him too. Joyce wasn't sure they could survive without Hank Summers in their life.

He had left early today and it was just Joyce, Buffy and Dawn at the breakfast table and Joyce was going through fliers that had come in the mail, only half paying attention to the subject of her daughter's bickering.

"MOM! Dawn won't give me her 'L' and she doesn't need it anyway 'cause she can't even spell words yet!" Buffy shouted.

"CAN SO!" Dawn shrieked pointing to the word 'Dawn' she had spelled out with her alphabet cereal.

"Yeah, But that's the only word you can spell, and there's no 'L' in 'Dawn' but there is TWO 'L's in 'Tigerlily' so just give it to me now!"

Dawn looked dangerously close to tears so Joyce thought she had better step in. "Buffy, maybe Dawn wants to use the 'L's she got in HER alphabet cereal for the purpose they were originally intended for – eating," Joyce said dryly.

Buffy pouted. Her breakfast was now totally ruined and to make things worse, Dawn cheekily devoured the prestigious piece of cereal right in front of her.

"Hey Buffy." Joyce said suddenly when she came to a pink flier. "They're holding a challenge by choice day camp soon." She held up a picture of smiling kids climbing ropes to Buffy.

"Mooom…" Buffy pouted as Dawn clapped her hands, spilling juice everywhere.

"Dawn." Joyce sighed and went to get a cloth.

"I want to go!" Dawn announced.

"Sorry Dawnie, it's for Buffy's age group only, dear." Joyce patted her youngest child's head. "It's run by the local elementary school here. Faith's school, I bet she is going." Joyce said cleverly.

"You really think so?" Buffy began to look excited. "What happens on a camp?"

"Well, there's lots of running and jumping and races and competitions..." Joyce explained, reading from the list. "…and teamwork and learning to get along with your peers."

Buffy looked at her confused at the last word.

"Friends." Joyce corrected herself. Frankly, Joyce thought Buffy could stand to learn some of these qualities.

Dawn couldn't stand it. "Buffeee doesn't want to go as much as I do!" she whined. "I could pretend to be Faith's twin sister, she's way cooler than you anyway Buffy."

"Dawn, be nice to your sister." Joyce warned.

"Well she is." Dawn said defiantly. "She'd make them let me come even though I'm not in Buffy's 'rage group. If they didn't she'd chop them up like this …and THIS!" Dawn wielded her spoon violently.

Joyce was shocked. "Asking your sisters best friend to 'chop people up' is not the way to go about things, Dawn."

"She's my best friend too! And I wouldn't have to ask her to, she just would!" Dawn giggled.

Joyce shoved the spoon back in Dawn's mouth. "That's enough out of you, young lady." She said sternly.

Buffy stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"So anyway how about it, Buffy?" Joyce asked.

"Okay…" Buffy said. "Only if Faith's going."

"Well it's her school." Joyce pointed out again. "She'll know everyone there and help you make some friends. A few new pen pals to write to for after we move back home."

Buffy's hesitant smile quickly became a frown hearing that.

"I'll make some calls, then." Joyce said cheerfully, reaching for the phone.

Dawn kept up stabbing her cereal with her imaginary sword till the letters didn't look like letters anymore, furious to have not gotten her way.

Buffy had honestly expected her mother to give into Dawn like she always did and to ask the camp counselors to make an exception for her. It felt good that she hadn't. A whole day of camp with her annoying little sister sounded like torture. Buffy looked across at Dawn's mashed up cereal. "Hey! That piece sort of looks like an 'L' now." Buffy reached over with expert coordination and removed the piece of cereal from Dawn's bowl with her spoon and happily completed her word.

"MOOOOOOM!' Dawn bellowed, even more agitated. Joyce stuck her head in the room and Buffy put on her best innocent look.

"Dawn." Joyce scolded seeing her daughters mashed up mess which had gone everywhere with her vigorous stabbing. "This is your last warning. I'm serious now. If you don't behave, next time I'll just LEAVE you at Aunt Arlene's."

Dawn gulped. Her Aunt expected her to eat weetabix for breakfast. The horror.

When Joyce went back to her phone call, Buffy stuck her tongue out again at Dawn. This was the first time she had one-upped her sister. And she had to say, it felt good.

A few hours later, Joyce and Buffy had dropped Dawn off and stopped to sign up for the camp on their way home.

"I don't know Mom." Buffy said worriedly, "I can't see Faith's name on the list."

They had spent the last ten minutes scouring the sign up sheet for any sign of her. Joyce hadn't been expecting this, it seemed nearly every child aged 6 to 8 in Sunnydale had their names listed here. Joyce couldn't imagine her daughter's active, full of energy best friend not wanting to go.

"Tell you what, Buffy. We'll put her name down with yours and pay her admission fee, and if you both don't want the tickets later, I'll just call and cancel." Joyce wrote their names down neatly and deposited the $20 for each child in the box beside.

They drove home and Buffy immediately went over to Faith who was swinging on their gate waiting for her and told her that there was a camp on this year.

"I know that, B." Faith said with a hint of bitterness. "They have it every year."

"_Mommy!" Faith ran inside as fast as she could to find her mother, after walking home from school. "Guess what!"_

"_What kid?" Catherine asked her six year old daughter, more interested in the magazine she was reading._

"_There's a summer camp next week and I'm finally old enough to go!"_

"_Well, go then." Catherine said. "I'm not stopping you."_

_Faith cheered and jumped up and down doing some sort of childish victory dance and then turned back around. "Oh. I almost forgot." She said trying to remember exactly what her teacher said. "It cost…twenty dollars." Faith had no idea how much that was, but she soon found out._

"_No way am I wasting this week's cig money on some camp! Why would you even ask me that, you little brat!" _

"So you've been twice already then?" Buffy asked disappointed, her face falling.

Faith shook her head.

"Why not?" Buffy asked, her eyes round and curious.

"Well… my mom… uh….she ..uh…" Faith stuttered.

Luckily Joyce came to her rescue. She couldn't help noticing that Catherine never seemed to be around Faith, and that Faith didn't really have any real possessions of her own. In fact, come to think of it, Joyce couldn't really see Catherine shelling out a twenty for her daughter to go have some fun.

"Some mother's are busier than me, Buffy and don't have the time to sign their daughter's up for things."

Faith looked at her gratefully for saving her.

"But don't worry..." Joyce winked at Faith. "We signed you up and paid for you to go so your mom won't have to worry about it."

"You… you did?" Faith stuttered, unable to believe her sudden luck. "But…but…"

"Don't worry about the money." Joyce interrupted as Buffy linked arms with Faith and danced around. Faith was so happy that she went along with it, for a little while anyway.


	10. Summer Camp

"…And I can show you all the cool places! Like behind the shed where all the bigger kids blow smoke at each other like my mom does, and all the vending machine's. Especially the one that gives you free stuff if you kick it hard enough!"

Faith was acting strange today, Buffy thought as she listened to her ramble on as they were shepherded onto a grassy oval ready to be instructed what to do by the camp leaders who were all teachers, most of which Faith knew.

They were at Sunnydale elementary school, and for the first time in a long time Faith was excited to be there. She hated school and skipped as often as she dared, but she'd go this year if Buffy was going to be taking lessons with her.

Buffy bit her lip. She thought she knew exactly what Faith was thinking and she was aware she couldn't keep the fact that she was leaving to herself much longer, but she didn't want to crush Faith's uncharacteristic bout of excitement.

If Faith asked her a direct question like 'whether she would sit next to her in class all year' then there was no way she could lie and say yes when she knew she couldn't be there. The guilt was killing Buffy as it was.

"Faith…I…" Buffy started, unsure of what she was really about to say.

"GIRLS and BOYS!" Boomed a small snivelly man, balding on top. "My name is Principal Snyder, and I along with my assistant…uh... I can't keep track of my faculty… who are you again?"

"Call me Spike?" The bleached blonde man said with a grin.

"Mr Spike." Snyder confirmed.

"Hey!" Faith whispered to Buffy excitedly. He's the only teacher in this damn school that gives a damn about me. He teaches physical education, and tells me I can throw better than any of the boys. I'm so glad he's here.

Buffy looked at him warily. He seemed familiar to her but she couldn't place where she'd seen him before. But he sure gave her the creeps.

"Right, kiddies." Spike said. "Let's get you all into groups now. We're going to stay in the same groups all day, so don't pair up with sods you don't like."

"Ahem." Principal Snyder cleared his throat.

Spike looked confused. "Oh, right then. Mr Snyder here is a bloody dictator…" He coughed noisily and put a hand to his mouth. "Sorry… Mr Snyder here is in charge and you must obey everything he says when he comes around."

Faith turned to Buffy, happy that for the first time in a team situation, she'd have someone to group with. However, Buffy was already talking to a boy and a red headed girl who Faith was pretty sure 'hated' her.

The boy was grinning bashfully at Buffy and the girl equally so.

"I'm Xander." He said reaching out his hand. "And… this is uh…my best friend Willow." he offered when Willow stood rooted to the spot clutching a headless Barbie doll.

Buffy smiled warmly at them both with all the Buffy charm she could muster. "Hi, I'm Buffy." She said.

"You're new here." Xander tried not to stare at the blonde, the tone in his voice causing Willow to slump her shoulders. Why did Xander have to pay more attention to EVERYONE but her? She couldn't hold it against Buffy though. She was pretty, but to her credit she didn't seem mean like Cordelia.

She realized Buffy was talking to her. "What happened to your Barbie's head?"

"We-well…" Willow stuttered. "A few years ago Xander stole her…I don't know what he was going to do with her bu-but and he's really good at breaking stuff, but not on purpose…ju-just by accident so somehow it got broke and I was re-really sad and I cried lots and was real mad and told him I would never kiss him again cause we were going out then…" Willow blushed. "so Xander dipped the head into the glue pot at school and stuck it back on…but that only worked for a minute or so cause that glue's meant to be just for paper not Barbie's and I realized he head is smaller than her body so I'm more likely to loose that pa-part so I stuck it in a shoebox at home and open it to ta-talk to her sometimes and brush her hair… but she's my only Barbie and I want to carry some of her… you kn-know?" Blushing furiously now she ducked her head and when she looked back up Buffy was smiling at her and not running away like people usually did when she babbled like that. Feeling braver she decided to ask the blonde to group with them, but Xander beat her to it.

"Will you be in our group?' He asked Buffy with a lovesick grin.

Faith who was watching the whole scene slumped her shoulders and looked at her feet and began to turn away.

"Sure!" She heard Buffy answer brightly. "But only if my best friend can be in the group too." She said gesturing to Faith's retreating back.

"FAITH'S your best friend?" Willow asked incredulously. She wasn't aware that Faith liked people at all. It was said in the playground that Faith was a witch who cast spells on her classmates. But what was really wrong with that, Willow thought? It kind of sounded like fun. Unless the spells were evil and bad and hurt puppy dogs.

"Who's Faith?' Xander said, his expression clueless.

Buffy dragged Faith back over by the hand and smiled.

"Oh. That Faith." Xander said a little afraid.

"Its okay guys, I won't bite." Faith said standing a few steps back so not to scare them, glad they all seemed to be somewhat okay with her being there.

"All groups must have five members!" Snyder bellowed. Buffy began searching for another person and Spike came up to Faith.

"How's everyone treating you love?" he asked concerned, knowing that Faith was usually the last to get picked by her classmates.

But Spike liked her. During sport lessons, he often called her and her alone, the nickname 'pet' leading to 'teacher's pet' jeers from her class.

Faith didn't mind though. It was nice to be liked. "Spike, this is my friend Buffy." She said.

"Hello there." The bleached blonde teacher said to the cowering girl. "Any friend of Faith's is a friend of mine." Spike looked the little blonde girl up and down while a strange feeling he didn't recognize came over him. Buffy tried to smile shyly at him, but was too afraid to meet his eyes.

A commotion going on elsewhere attracted his attention. "Bollocks!" he said striding over to the disturbance and seized a small girl in a designer sport tracksuit by the shoulders. He dragged her kicking and screaming back to where Faith stood. "Anya has the same shoes as me!" the girl screeched, displaying her bright pink trainers.

Spike ignored her. "Group member, number five!" he announced to Faith setting her down in front of her.

"What? NO! I can't breathe the same air as these freaks let alone be in their group." Cordelia said, wrinkling her nose at Xander, Willow and Faith.

"Final word." Spike said to Cordelia, shrugging at Faith's confused look. "Sorry pet, Snyder would have made you sit out of the games all day with only four members."

"Cordelia, though?" Faith sighed.

Xander was whispering to Willow. "Yes, this definitely violates the rules of the 'We Hate Cordelia Club." Willow whispered back.

Cordelia flounced around. "Well then, you losers better be in good shape, 'cause the only acceptable end to this day is winning the big obstacle race and adding another trophy to my trophy case."

Buffy had been away from LA for so long that she had forgotten about how she and her old friends used to behave and treat people. It had been very much like Cordelia. For the millionth time, Buffy wished she didn't have to go home.

Faith sensed her distress. "Don't worry, Tigerlily. Cordelia's not so bad, if you like snakes." She said, not knowing the real reason behind Buffy's sad eyes.

Faith trying to cheer her up only made Buffy feel worse.

Spike began to lead them through the warm up, and every now and then he paused by Cordelia and encouraged her to actually participate. "But there might be sweat." She whined horrified.

Spike scoffed. "What else you expect, love?" He turned to hi-five Faith who was turning cartwheels.

The day progressed and Willow and Xander got over their fear of Faith and they began to get along, and soon Faith was showing Willow how to cartwheel and Xander how to whistle between activities. Buffy was an instant favourite within the entire camp group, of course with the exception of Cordelia. Buffy and Faith were unstoppable in the 'three legged-race' and easily outran the others in fun runs. Cordelia hated this, but was secretly glad to have Buffy and Faith on her team. They had won most of the team games so far and she hoped the final obstacle race with the shiny trophy prize would be no exception. Willow and Xander had won nothing individually but it was clear they were having fun. They were also not used to having lots of people around them that accepted them.

Even Cordelia hadn't called them a freak more than ten times today which had to be a record.

Finally, it was time for the obstacle race and Cordelia was buzzing around barking orders at her team. "C'mon Willow!" she said to the redhead who was lying in a very unique position. "Stretch harder!"

"If I stretch any harder, I'm gonna break something." Willow muttered to an unhearing Xander who was panting and running on the spot while Cordelia made whipping motions behind him.

Willow always wondered why Xander always did everything Cordelia said, even though he said he hated her almost everyday.

Spike came over. "Love, I suggest you begin to warm up yourself." He said to Cordelia. "Or, you'll drag them down, not the other way around." Cordelia began to say something venomous back, but Snyder was there in a flash. "Now…uh…" Snyder fumbled.

"Spike." Spike offered.

"Now Mr Spike, lets not be too hasty with whatever we're saying to the princess of Sunnydale elementary here." He said, money and big donations flashing before his eyes.

Willow, Xander and Faith groaned and not to be left out Buffy groaned a moment after them, grinning at her new friends childishly. Snyder turned towards her.

"And who might you be?" He glared, reading her nametag. "Summers. A troublemaker, I'm sure. Hanging around with the naughtiest girl in second grade too." He glanced at Faith disapprovingly. "Bad news you are Summers, I can see it now."

Faith pouted at him as he walked off and Buffy seemed close to tears. "Don't worry, B." Faith said, trying to cheer her up. "He looks like a troll and he'll probably 'never get some'."

Spike burst out laughing at such crude talk coming from a sweet looking little girl with pigtails, and thinking that Faith meant that Snyder would never get any more candy ever again, Buffy laughed too.

Spike ruffled Faith's hair and then announced into the loudspeaker that the race was starting now. It was a tough course, but Faith found it easy climbing over obstacles, since she was so practiced in climbing trees. Having been up and down from Faith's tree house all summer had made Buffy pretty experienced too. Willow and Xander mostly managed fine by themselves, but needed Buffy and Faith's help for the harder ones. Never did Xander think before today that he'd be trusting the baddest girl in the school, Faith Lehane, with his life. Letting go of the handholds in order to clutch Faith's hands as she leaned over and helped him climb to higher ones was one of the scariest moments in Xander's life.

Buffy was equally busy with Willow. "It's okay, if you fall I'll catch you." Buffy assured her as Willow bravely walked across one of the higher balance beams. Willow wasn't usually that afraid of heights, but she had been rattled seeing a frog on one of the lower rungs of the ladder and she was sure it was an 'amen' that she was going to die. Buffy eventually coaxed her across.

Cordelia had no hope though. The ruling stated that each member had to complete each obstacle to win, but it didn't matter HOW they completed them. Faith and Buffy grabbed her under the arms and practically carried her through each course. Cordelia kicked and flailed around until she realized what they were doing and then humbly tried to help them as much as she could.

They reached the end of the entire course miles ahead of the others and jumped up and down excitedly as Spike presented them with a trophy. Faith was especially excited because she had never won anything before today, and Buffy was excited because she had never won anything but beauty pageants and this was very different to just standing still and smiling for judges. Spike hi-fived them all and Willow and Xander hugged Faith at the same time, leaving her embarrassed and pleased. They would never have dared to have done that yesterday, even for a million dollars.

"We were awesome, Faith!" Buffy said to her, linking her arms through hers. Faith had never been happier in her life. She had first place ribbons pinned all over her and three…and a half friends. Xander had just volunteered HER to be the one to keep the trophy much to Cordelia's fury. He was fast developing a crush on Faith (according to Willow who was very used to that sort of thing) and he had told Cordelia that if it wasn't for Faith, she would still be at the first obstacle. Cordelia knew it was true, and flounced off.

Okay…three friends. Faith thought to herself, her mood not wavering. She smiled at Buffy and moved off to talk to Spike. Things were really looking up now. Maybe her mother would even be proud of her when she got home.

Buffy turned to hear Willow and Xander gushing about how fast she could run. "You're fast, like roadrunner!" Willow said admiringly.

"No way!" Xander said. "Like Snoopy!"

"Snoopy is not that fast." Willow disagreed, confused.

"He is when he wants to be." Xander insisted. "He can dash across a field in two seconds flat."

"If you say so." said Willow.

Everyone else had now finished the race and parents were starting to come and collect their children.

"So, Buffy." Xander said, his lovesick focus going back to her. "Will you sit with us at lunchtime when school starts?"

"Oh..." Buffy said deflating instantly. "I won't be going to school with you, I'm only here for the summer."

Willow and Xander's faces fell. "But…we were…" said Willow.

"You're only here for the summer, Buffy?" Faith asked overhearing, all her hopes and excitement about her 'new life' disappearing. She had been standing there the whole time.

"Oh....Faith. I wanted to tell you." Buffy cried, "I just didn't know how."

Faith's face immediately went blank, a skill she had been perfecting for years. Of course Buffy had to be leaving, why should anything good happen to her? She kicked herself for not expecting this and beginning to hope. Because when you start hoping, all you get is hurt.

"I'm so sorry Faith." Buffy tried miserably.

But Faith couldn't shrug off her emotions. She usually could pretend she didn't care, but she couldn't this time. This time she was mad.

Joyce pulled up just then and gestured for the two girls to get in the car, exclaiming loudly about the fact that they were covered in ribbons and marveling at the enormous trophy Faith was carrying. She wondered why the girls barely said anything.

Faith was sitting as far away from Buffy as possible and her daughter looked miserable. "Did you have a good time, girls?" Joyce asked.

"Fine mom." Buffy said. Faith just requested to walk the rest of the way home.

"Oh no, Faith!" Joyce said. "It is much too far for you to walk and I don't mind driving you. It's next door, it's certainly not out of my way." Joyce laughed.

The girls sat in silence the whole way home with Buffy occasionally sneaking glances at Faith who remained expressionless.

Joyce pulled up across from Faith's house. "Thanks Mrs S." Faith said as Buffy handed the trophy to her to take inside.

"You keep it." Faith said.

"No… it's yours." Buffy said tearfully. Faith took it slowly. She realized she had more chance of impressing her mother if she had a trophy in her hand. She walked up her path and when she was out of earshot, Joyce asked Buffy what had happened between them.

"She found out." Buffy said tears running down her face. "She found out I'm going home soon."

"You still hadn't told her?" Joyce asked surprised.

Buffy shook her head sniffling.

"Well, you did bring this on yourself then Buffy." Joyce said, thinking of the lost little girl next door and how hurt she must be feeling.

"I know mom. I have to make it up to her."

"I hope you've got time." Joyce said guiding her daughter indoors.

***

Faith opened the door to her house carrying her achievements and looked around.

"Mom?" She called, hoping Eddie wasn't there. She wanted her mother to herself.

"Mom??" She tried again. "Look what I won?" There was no answer.

Faith ran from room to room and had decided she'd gone out, until a sight stopped her and made her blood run cold.

Her mother was lying on the kitchen floor, her hair fanned out underneath her.

"Geez mom." Faith said nervously dropping the trophy and letting it fall to the ground as she knelt beside her mother. "Come on, wake up now." She slapped her mother's face which usually did the trick in times like these.

No response. She tried it again.

…

No response.

Her mom slept in the kitchen sometimes, but it wasn't usually in a pool of vomit with a syringe in her hand.

Her eyes were closed and her face was bone white. She wasn't breathing.

"Mom… Mommy? Faith stared in shock. "I got something to show you." She said to her numbly.

She stared a little while longer until reality dawned on her and she began to scream and scream.


	11. Sleeping Without Dreams

Joyce and Buffy had just come inside and Buffy was now sitting in front of the TV watching some cartoons instead of doing her chores, as Joyce felt sorry for her because she was so upset by her fight with Faith.

Not even the antics of Scooby Doo could make her stop sniffling.

"Daphne's my favourite character." Dawn announced bounding in and sitting beside her.

"Is that right?" Joyce said smiling. "Why is that Dawn?"

"'Cause all the rest are yucky boys." Dawn said pointing to the screen and making a face.

"Velma's not a boy." Buffy said confused, forgetting her troubles for the moment.

"Yes she is!" Dawn screeched. She hated to be told she was wrong. "Look at his hair!"

"…And 'his' skirt." Buffy added rolling her eyes.

"Oh." Dawn said ashamed. "Well, Daphne's still my favourite anyhow." Dawn secretly thought that Buffy was like Daphne with her cool hair and fashion sense, and that was why she liked her. But NO WAY was she telling her sister that.

Dawn was in stitches over Scooby's behaviour and even Buffy was beginning to smile a little, but then they heard it; a terror filled scream from next door that seemed to go on and on.

Joyce was up in a flash, and Buffy a second behind her.

"That's Faith screaming, Mom." Buffy said scared, heading for the door towards the sound of her friend. It's got to be a vamp, Buffy thought. No, ten vamps, 'cause Faith wouldn't scream like that over just one. No, way. It's got to be fifty pirate vamps with no teeth and peg legs to have scared her so bad! Buffy knew she was no match for that sort of horror, but she moved faster towards the door anyway, determined to get to her best friend.

"Buffy, no." Joyce commanded, feeling sure that this was not a situation she wanted her daughter to see – who knew what was happening in that house. Joyce had seen some seedy men coming in an out of that house in the time she had lived next door.

"But… mom." Buffy said desperately.

"No buts." Joyce barked, frustrated. "You will stay here and look after your little sister."

Buffy nodded, resigned, and Joyce took off at top speed.

Scooby doo went on solving mysteries, forgotten by the girls.

Dawn looked terrified. "I could have taken it out." She said shaking, probably imagining a monster similar to the 'purple people eater'. "I'm just as strong as mom."

"I know you are, Dawnie." Buffy said putting her arms around her little sister trying to comfort her. "I know you are."

Meanwhile Joyce had burst through the door of Faith's house and was following the screaming wielding a baseball bat with her full maternal instincts into gear, ready to strike anything that wasn't two feet tall. When she came to the kitchen, she was shocked beyond belief to see Faith standing over her mother's unmoving body. As soon as Faith saw her she stopped screaming, and began to cry huge heart breaking sobs that tore through her small body.

What would happen to her now? Sure, her mother wasn't the most caring loving parent, but there were worse places she could be. Catherine had often spoke of leaving her at the children's home if she behaved badly, telling her it was where all the bad children without a family went. Faith was sure she'd soon be there too now. Just like another unwanted lost girl.

Joyce was talking to her, but Faith couldn't understand the words. Moving quickly, Joyce picked her up and Faith clung to her awkwardly as Joyce grabbed the phone and dialed the ambulance, police and just managing to stop short of calling for the fire department.

Joyce carried Faith to the couch and sat with her, trying her hardest to comfort her while Faith just stared blankly into space.

At 5:03pm, Catherine Lehane was pronounced dead and her body was taken away. The policemen asked Joyce to report all she had seen and for details regarding Faith's background. They asked if she knew if Faith had any other family members that could take her. Joyce had no idea.

He led Faith to his car, telling her they were going to the police station.

Joyce couldn't bear it. "Wait." The man wound down his window to hear what she had to say. "We will take her! My husband and I would happily care for her until other arrangements can be made."

Joyce knew they couldn't afford to have a third daughter, but they could have her for the couple of weeks they had left in Sunnydale before they went home.

"Sorry, Ma'am." The policeman said, feeling sorry for the thin little girl with the blank stare in the back seat. "We have to take her now, standard procedure." He began to drive away.

"Couldn't I at least call my daughter to say goodbye then?" Joyce asked hurriedly.

"Sorry." The policeman apologized again. "I really can't wait."

Giving up, Joyce waved goodbye to Faith herself. "You hang in there honey, Buffy and I will visit you as soon as we can."

Faith tried her hardest to smile at her, but it was too hard. Joyce and Buffy were going home, and she'd be all alone anyway. She thought she'd better get used to it.

The car was soon out of sight and Joyce stood still for a few minutes longer, gathering her strength, dreading having to go inside and tell her two girls the hard truth of what happened.

When Joyce finally came inside, Dawn came flying at her. "Was it a vampire mom!?"

Buffy had just spent the last hour telling Dawn how they had slain a vampire all by themselves that one night, to reassure both herself and Dawn that Faith would be alright.

Buffy gave her a threatening look that meant 'don't you know the meaning of a sworn-to-secrecy-pinkie-promise?'

Dawn shut up immediately.

"No Dawn." Joyce said tiredly. "Why don't you go upstairs for a while." She said unwilling to have the 'what does death and drugs mean' conversation with her three year old.

"Go on…" Buffy whispered. "I'll tell you everything later."

Dawn grudgingly went upstairs, worried about Faith, but pleased that Buffy wanted to include her.

"Is Faith okay?" Buffy asked Joyce immediately as soon as Dawn was out of earshot.

"Yes and no." Joyce said trying to find the words to explain to a young seven year old. "Faith's mother did the wrong thing and she's going to heaven now."

"Don't people go to HELL if they do the wrong thing, mom?" Buffy asked innocently, not really understanding what she was being told. Joyce privately thought that hell was where Catherine Lehane belonged for mistreating her daughter, but she didn't say so. "Faith's mom had a hard time and did things she didn't mean to." She finally said, realizing that there might be more truth in this than she had thought. "Now Faith has no-one to take care of her, so they took her away."

"She'll be coming back right? Buffy asked, unable to comprehend the fact that someone she knew had died.

"Faith?" Joyce asked.

"No…Faith and her mom." Buffy said firmly.

"No, Buffy. I know you've been lucky enough so far to never have someone you know die before, but you have to try and understand. Once a person is gone, its forever, they just can't come back."

"Is death like sleeping without dreams?" Buffy asked.

"That's right. It wasn't right for Faith's mom to die, she was still only very young and there was so much more living she had to do. It just happened. It was a mistake."

"Like when you get a really good ice-cream but you accidently let it melt away before you get to eat it." Buffy asked seriously.

Joyce almost laughed at her daughter's childish way of putting things in perspective, but seeing the sad, earnest look on Buffy's face she held back.

"Kind of." She said smiling at her. "But Faith will have to pay for her mother's mistakes now. She'll be put in a home until someone adopts her as their own child."

"Can't we adopt her?" Buffy asked. "She's like a sister to me anyway."

Joyce hugged her daughter. "Honey, we can't afford to. But I promise we'll visit her as soon as we can."

"I miss her already." Buffy's voice shook. "The last thing we did was fight."

"She'll need a friend, Buffy. Imagine how you would feel if it was me who died."

Buffy's stomach twisted into knots and she understood. "Faith's mom may have got to go to heaven, but being left behind must really be hell."


	12. I'm Not Crying

"_I am not a child now.  
I can take care of myself.  
I mustn't let them down now-  
Mustn't let them see me cry.  
I'm fine.  
I'm fine.  
I'm too tired to listen.  
I'm too old to believe:  
All these childish stories.  
There is no such thing as faith,  
And trust,  
And pixie dust.  
I try,  
But it's so hard to believe.  
I try,  
But I can't see what you see.  
I try.  
I try.  
I try."_

It took Joyce a few more weeks to track down where Faith had been taken as the police station wasn't always particularly responsive to her questions. Every day, Buffy would ask her if she had found out anything new and the answer was always 'no'.

Buffy had everything packed ready to leave the following day and was trying to get used to the fact that there was probably no hope. Dawn was much more vocal and carried around Joyce's thick bound address book and demanded Buffy find Faith's address so they could visit her and say goodbye.

"It's not that simple Dawnie." Joyce said gently as Dawn's eyes welled with tears.

"The whole world isn't in Mom's address book like you think." Buffy added.

"But it's thicker than 'Peter Pan!'" Dawn whined.

"Mostly they're just gallery contacts, Dawn." Joyce paused, trying to think of a way to get the younger child out of her hair so she could pack up some more boxes. "Why don't you play 'Never Land' with Buffy?"

"Okay." The girls said together, and sat in the middle of the room. They stared at each other for a while.

"How does this go again?" Buffy finally said, feeling very sad that her favourite game wasn't working.

"Well…to get to Never Land, all you need is…" Dawn screwed up her face trying to remember.

"Faith…trust and pixiedust." Buffy said automatically. "It even says so in the book."

"But we don't have no Faith!" Dawn pointed out. "There's always trust and pixiedust around, but we need Faith."

"You're right." Buffy agreed, then sighed. "I miss her so much."

Dawn immediately got to her knees and began to draw up a 'missing person' poster with a red crayon. Buffy joined her and thought that this was a brilliant idea. She wondered why she didn't think of it herself.

"Faith doesn't look like that." Buffy scoffed when Dawn picked up the green crayon and began colouring in her hair.

"Faith has pretty hair and green is the prettiest colour so Faith SHOULD have green hair in my poster." Dawn said defiantely.

"And why is she so fat?" Buffy continued.

"My hand gets all shaky drawing circles to make the body." Dawn said ashamed.

Buffy forgave her for that one. "Is that you beside her?" Buffy asked.

"Yep." Dawn said proudly.

"I can see the fairy wings." Buffy giggled.

Dawn finally drew Buffy with her 'boring yellow hair' beside them both and Buffy wrote the words:

'LOST GIRL – One Missing Faith. Description: Has actually got brown hair (not green). Sometimes says rude words. Buffy's best friend. Taller than Buffy'.

"What does it say." Dawn interrupted. Buffy read it out to her. "Buffy AND DAWN'S best friend." Dawn shrieked.

"Okay, okay." Buffy added the words to the poster.

"Add 'really cool' to the des… des…" Dawn tried to sound out the word she wanted.

"Description." Buffy offered.

"Yeah. So they get the right Faith and not a weird person." Dawn accidently broke one of the crayons. "Shit!" She said using her best Faith impression.

"Dawn…" Joyce warned coming in, and then softened. "Go and put your poster up outside."

Dawn happily went outside and across the lawn, looking for a good spot. She sticky-taped it to the most far away place she could go – the mailbox – and turned to go back inside.

Moments later the phone rang and Joyce and Buffy were both running outside after her heading for the car. "Come on, Dawn!" Buffy yelled. "We know where she is!"

Dawn stood still, surprised. She glanced at her poster. "That was quick." She whispered, thanking whichever invisible fairy had seen the poster and rung them so quickly.

The address the police gave Joyce was not one she was expecting. It led the three to the upper-class side of town, to a mansion with pillars and arches and a perfect lawn with a gazebo out the front. A woman came out to greet them and introduced herself as Faith's new guardian – Diana. Diana was a sharp sort of woman in a business suit. Both women shook hands and shared a look of understanding.

"I'm glad you decided to take her in." Joyce said.

'Glad to." Diana answered her in a thick British accent. "The little girl needs someone to watch her, give her a home."

At that moment Faith came outside, and Joyce barely recognized her. The ever-present dirt on her face was gone and she was dressed neatly in a pastel dress that she was pulling at uncomfortably. He hair was braided neatly in two bunches. However, the look in her eyes was the same as when Joyce had said goodbye to her a few weeks ago.

Buffy couldn't seem to believe her eyes either. Joyce watched as both of her daughters hugged the uncomfortable child fiercely, Dawn yelling something indistinguishable at the top of her lungs.

"Come, we shall have some tea and leave the girls alone." Diana said and Joyce followed her inside.

"I like your dress." Buffy said shyly to Faith, not knowing what to say.

Faith shrugged. "It doesn't suit me. It's for a princess… like you." She said bitterly, regretting the last two words as soon as she said them.

"Faith…I'm..." Buffy began.

"No apologies, B." Faith stopped her.

"So you… live here now." Buffy changed tactics. "It's nice."

"Yeah. I suppose it's alright. Diana's a bit British but at least she never forgets breakfast."

Dawn interrupted their lack of conversation, genuinely trying her hardest to understand the situation in her own way. "So your mommy died…." She pronounced that word as if it was in another language. "And you went to the mommy shop and got another?"

Faith nodded wryly. "Something like that."

"Don't you miss your old one?"

Something about the way Dawn was looking at her, as curious and tactless as any child who was too young to successfully conform to social rules could be, stopped Faith mid-lie. "Yes." She admitted. "She was all I had, you know?"

"I know." Buffy said, softly resting her hand on Faith's arm.

"How come you aren't crying?" Dawn asked.

"Dawn." Buffy gave her a warning look.

"I haven't cried once, since it happened." Faith said proudly. "And I won't either."

"You've been through something horrible, Faith. It's okay to cry." Buffy said seriously.

"No it's not." Faith said. "Crying is for babies, Dawn's age."

"I'm not a baby!" Dawn squealed.

"'Course you're not, Tinkerbelle." Faith smiled at her affectionately and Dawn settled down.

Buffy didn't know how to connect with her friend again. "Faith…"

"Look, this thing with Diana. I bet it isn't permanent, okay? So don't go being jealous of my fancy house. She's only interested in me 'cause I know what vampires are. She just likes asking me questions. Soon she'll stop being interested and stop playing with me and start forgetting breakfast, lunch AND dinner and she'll go away all the time. Pretty soon after that, she'll start saying I make her sick, and start drinking bottles and bottles of stuff that only makes her sicker. And then she'll die, and I'll have no-one again." Faith paused. "Everyone leaves me. Dad, Mom and you, Buffy. She stared point blank at Buffy who trembled and looked away. "I'm not sure which one hurts worse, but that's what mother's mean. So why bother crying over it?"

"Faith… no." Buffy was shocked. "That isn't what it's like." She quoted Joyce. "Your mother made some 'bad choices' but that doesn't mean Diana will too. A real mother is someone who loves you, no matter what, and doesn't mind when you're sick and tells you…"

"That you're beautiful and smart!" Dawn piped up. She had been sitting there silent for quite some time, scared by Faith's outburst.

"But she'll never love me." Faith whispered.

"I know she will, Faith. A real mother is like a best friend. Give Diana a chance." Buffy said gently, seeing Faith's resolve was weakening. "You deserve for things to be better. And I'll never leave you. Not really. I'll never stop thinking of you."

Suddenly, Faith was crying for the first time in weeks since her mother's death.

"It's okay to cry." Dawn repeated her big sisters words. "You said I wasn't a baby, and I still cry."

"All the time." Buffy added, leaning forward and putting her arms around her friend, including Dawn in the hug. Buffy sniffled too. "I don't want to go." She said tearfully.

"But, It's like you said, B." Faith said crying openly into her shoulder. "You won't really leave if I never forget you. How could I forget you anyway? You're the first real friend I've ever had."

"Best friend." Dawn commented, adding herself into that category. She untangled herself from them both and carefully pried the worn looking wings from her back that she hadn't removed all summer. "To remember me by." She announced, handing them to Faith.

"Don't you want to keep them?" Faith asked her surprised.

Dawn shook her head. "Tinkerbelle stays with you."

Buffy took off her feather headband. "So does Tigerlily."

Faith immediately took off her cross necklace that Diana had given her yesterday which was definitely the most expensive thing she had ever owned. She gave it to Buffy. Buffy smiled at her and put it around her neck. "So the vamps in Los Angeles don't get ya." Faith explained gruffly. She then reached into her pocket for her favourite slingshot that she never went anywhere without. "To protect your sis with." She said handing it to Dawn who nodded solemnly.

"Don't let mom catch you with that." Buffy said.

Dawn pocketed it, and not a moment too soon.

"Time to go now, girls." Joyce said appearing out front, happy to see her daughter and her friend had made up.

"But mooooooooooom." Dawn whined, in the way only she could.

"Sorry girls." Joyce said genuinely apologetic, but needing to beat Hank home.

The three girls stood and hugged again, Dawn barely reaching Faith's elbow.

"Remember me?" Buffy asked again, just to be sure.

"Always." Faith said grinning much more like her usual cocky self.

"ALWAYS." Dawn screeched.

Faith smiled wider. "You crazy kid" she said to Dawn who giggled.

"We'll keep in touch." Joyce said to Diana, leading the girls to the car.

"Bye Tigerlily." Faith said waving.

"Bye Lost Girl." Buffy answered, trying hard not to cry again.

"Actually…" Faith kept waving as the Summer's women walked away and Diana came to stand by her side. "I don't think I'm quite so 'lost' anymore."

"_I can finally see it.  
Now I have to believe:  
All those precious stories.  
All the world is made of faith,  
And trust,  
And pixie dust.  
So I'll try,  
'Cause I finally believe!  
I'll try,  
'Cause I see where you see!  
I'll try.  
I'll try!  
I'll try!  
I'll try-  
To fly."_

_I'll try - Jonatha Brooke. (Return to Neverland Soundtrack) _

* * *

This is my favourite chapter so far, actually. :) The song seemed perfect for this fic, lol. I swear it was written for little Faith.


	13. Summer's Over

10 years later in 1999.

That summer was long over, and everything had soon changed.

Buffy moved back to Los Angeles and missed Faith terribly as she rejoined her superficial friends Kimberly and Cassandra and went back to her old life. Once again she was forced to obsess over her hair and play unimaginative games that now felt boring to her, and try to forget all about the adventures she had been on in Sunnydale.

Over time, she 'grew up' and learned to fit back into her old lifestyle as if she had never left it. Play makeup became real makeup, and many hours were spent obsessing over becoming 'May Queen.' Much to Joyce's dismay she began dating boys in grades above her and by fourteen she was spending her Friday nights at the movies with a cute boy, her friends sitting a few rows behind staring jealously.

But it all felt empty.

She never forgot the dark haired girl she had befriended that one summer though. Many memories of her childhood left her, many people she had known, she forgot. But she never forgot Faith. She almost never took off the necklace that she had been given.

She was worried that something may have happened to Faith.

Faith had never written back to all the letters Buffy had sent to her. Almost ten years ago, Buffy had written her the very first one and covered it with an abundance of glitter and stickers, being careful not to use too much pink.

The letter itself was short and the spelling was average, but that was the best Buffy could do at the time.

She had once again become an avid mailbox-checker as Joyce called her, waiting for a response. But, she only became more and more disappointed with each check as the years went by.

She never stopped writing to Faith though, and the letter's become like a diary, where Buffy kept the relationship going in a one-sided way, writing Faith all of her deepest thoughts and feelings. Every time she hooked up and broke up with a boy, she told Faith like she told all the others, but Faith was the only one privileged to know that she had never liked him in the first place, he was a big dumb jock she had dated to look good in front of her friends so she could stay popular.

All that didn't seem to matter anymore though. The boys and desire for popularity had lost its relevance. Lately, Buffy had found herself thinking more and more of her time with Faith, wondering what had really happened. It was so long ago, she had only been a child.

She had especially been wondering this since Merrick had come and told her she was the 'slayer.' Buffy, slayer of vampires. Merrick was to be her watcher, and train her to fight them.

She hadn't believed him at first. But she had surprised herself very much when Merrick had asked her if she had ever seen a vampire before and she had said 'yes' quite unexpectedly, flashing back to that summer's night when she and Faith had slept over in the tree-house.

They HAD killed a vampire. She remembered now.

Buffy had believed for years now that she had imagined what she had seen that night, and it had just been one of Faith's colourful make-believe games.

But no, it had been real. There was no imagining a face like that. And, he had called both her and Faith the 'slayer.' Had he known what Buffy was? And had Faith really been a 'slayer' too? Or just a brave determined little girl?

She had asked Merrick this. He had said that Faith as Buffy herself had once been, may have been a potential slayer, an above average girl with unique abilities just waiting called, or 'chosen.'

But Buffy was the 'one girl in all the world' so Faith couldn't be one too.

Merrick had been killed by a vamp called Lothos and Buffy would have drowned during the fight against him if not for her sort-of-friend Pike's quick thinking.

It scared her to know she could be dead and in the ground right now. She had cried for weeks, grieving over her first watchers death.

Rupert Giles was his replacement and Buffy had warmed to him eventually, but they still barely knew one another yet. He lived in a flat close enough to Buffy to demand she come over and have an afternoon training session each day. As a result of this, Buffy had grown stronger and had gone back and staked Lothos to hell.

Being a slayer was a lonely job and Buffy was hardly sure she was the right one to do it anymore.

Giles never got updates from his 'watcher's club' like Merrick had done, because apparently when Buffy had drowned, she had died for a few seconds, and another slayer from Jamaica had been called.

Giles would not believe this, at least until he saw it with his own eyes. According to his diaries, two slayers had never lived at the same time before. He reasoned that this did not make it impossible, but it was still likely enough that the council had made a mistake and would soon come around and apologize for their mistake, and thank him for keeping the slayer in order.

Dawn had grown up too. No longer a whiny three year old, she was now a whiny twelve year old which was far worse in Buffy's opinion. The truth of it though, was Buffy loved Dawn and always tried to protect her. Dawn had written Faith many letters too, but where Buffy's first ones were at least partially legible, Dawn's weren't at all. Dawn had only stopped writing to her a couple of years ago, which made Buffy – who had always stapled the two letters together and sent Dawn's with her own, quite sad.

It seemed Dawn had lost all Faith in Faith ever writing back and being there for her, but somehow, Buffy herself could not quite do the same.

Joyce had put up with Hank for almost another ten years. She had put up with his lying, cheating and bad behaviour towards her girls, but she had finally had enough. She knew he was having an affair with his secretary and many of his late nights were not spent doing work. After Sunnydale, each time he transferred away from home he didn't invite Joyce or the girls to go with him, he happily left them for months on end.

Not anymore.

Joyce had the girls pack up their things and say goodbye to their father. They were moving out, and Joyce was getting a much needed divorce.

Joyce wasn't sure if he'd put up a fight, but she'd make it clear to him that he didn't have a choice.

They were moving for good, to the one place that they truly loved. Where Joyce had left all her friends from the art gallery, and where Buffy and Dawn had left their innocence behind – The small town of Sunnydale, population 37, 000.

* * *

One more chapter to go! Sorry for the cliffhanger. This was more of a bridging chapter between the past and present than anything else.

And I'm sorry for the looong delay everyone. Uni and my personal life is definitely keeping me horribly busy. :/

Thanks so much to mookkitt for her helpful suggestions about chapter 4! I did my best to somewhat improve the end a little. I didn't realize I'd cut Faith off before she'd finished her story about escaping the vamp before. Lol.

Keep reviewing everyone! :) I'll try to get the last chapter up… between assignments …somehow.


	14. Seeing You Again

Oh wow! To be honest I'd completely forgotten to finish this. Thank you (to Anonymous) for reminding me. I'm had some very difficult personal circumstances to deal with so I've been away from human civilization on vacation for a while… okay a long time. Anyway here goes the last chapter…

* * *

The night was bitter cold, but Faith was too buzzed to feel it. With the help of her best friends Willow and Xander she had just slayed Kakistos, a big ol' nasty vamp with shriveled up cloves hoofs… or was that hooves?

Faith shrugged. Who cares? That's what Willow was for. She smiled affectionately at her friends. Sure, they didn't always agree with everything she did, they thought she swore too much and that her wardrobe only consisted of black, and she wasn't really into the things they did. Willow liked computers which Faith hated with a passion, and Xander kept macking on that bitch Cordelia. Hadn't he learned? Faith chuckled.

But she didn't care. They were great friends. They'd been hanging out since Faith was young and Faith knew they liked her. She appreciated them so much that years ago when her mom, Dianne, had told her what was going on – why they played with swords together more than games of snakes and ladders, Faith had told them the truth too and they had wanted to help.

Faith was in fact a potential slayer who had to be trained.

Together, the three friends had totaled a bunch of vamps and other nasties, even before Faith got her slayer powers. Dianne told her that the last two slayers lives, one of which had been a Jamaican girl, had been cut very short and Dianne would do anything to keep Faith from meeting the same premature fate.

Faith had come to think of Dianne as her mother, and just like Buffy had predicted Faith knew she was loved.

Buffy… Faith felt the same pang she always felt at the thought of her old friend.

Right after Buffy had left, Dianne and Faith had barely had a week before the Mayor came and repossessed their house, probably for some evil purpose. Faith shuddered.

She just knew that guy was up to no good. She'd had no idea if Buffy had been writing to her as any letters that may have come had never been passed on to her.

All except one. She had gone digging through the Mayors mailbox on a whim, as sort of a dare she had set herself.

She was so surprised to find a recent letter from Buffy which was full of personal information, and written as if Faith already knew most of the details and they had never lost contact. Faith figured that Buffy had never stopped writing to her, and that made her sad. Had the Mayor been keeping and reading her letters? Why? Faith thought. Why might Buffy be of interest to him?

She had been over the letter so many times it had worn thin. She'd extracted as much meaning from it as possible, reading into clues and references to what Buffy had been doing the past ten years. 99% of this particular letter had been about a fight with Joyce and a recent breakup. Normal but personal teenage stuff.

Faith felt like she was almost Buffy's idea of a diary, and she wasn't Buffy would talk to her the same way as in the letters if they were to meet again.

Faith would do anything to see her again.

Xander cut into her internal monologue. "A shiny nickel for your thoughts?" he asked her smiling.

"You ain't got a nickel Xand, you're flat broke!" Faith said back, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah." Willow teased. "I even had to pay for those Cheetos." She pointed to the packet he was demolishing.

"I need a job." Xander moaned. "One preferably with hot women and beer. Say, Faith, you drink excessively… how about gettin' me a fake ID and a job at that bar you like so much?"

"You're dreaming Xand." Faith grinned and slung an arm around his shoulders. "And I'm not an excessive drinker… I might be an excessive celebrater, but hey? What else are we supposed to do when we save the world?"

"That does happen… a lot." Willow agreed.

Xander started to rant about apocalypses, but hearing a noise behind them, Faith shushed him and glared dangerously when he rustled his almost empty packet of cheetos.

"We may have started the celebratin' too soon." Faith said under her breath and pulled Willow and Xander out of sight and crouched behind a bush. She whipped out a stake and tenses her body, ready for a fight. Anything that was creeping around this late was bound to be of the bad. The figure emerged into the clearing and without thinking (which was quite typical of Faith), she jumped out, stake raised and pinned the creature beneath her and was about to deliver the final blow until she noticed that in place of horns, the 'demon' had long blonde hair and was staring at Faith with big shocked eyes.

"Bu…Buffy?" Faith stammered. "…B? Is that really you?" She asked too stunned to move.

Buffy didn't speak for a moment, she just nodded her head. Faith noticed a vaguely familiar cross necklace hanging around her neck, and for a moment felt like she was seven years old again.

Coming back to reality, she jumped off Buffy quickly and extended her hand and helped the blonde up.

"I'm so sorry…B…thought you were something nasty coming at me… not many people walk alone at night in Sunnydale." She said dumbly.

"But you do…" Buffy said. "You were never one for safety."

"Guess not." Faith chuckled awkwardly, realizing she better come up with some explanation. "Oh…I was just…." Faith scrambled for something plausible.

"…slaying some vampires?" Buffy finished with a wicked grin.

"Okay, you caught me. Like old times, right?" Faith said referring back to their childhood. "When you left, I kept up the hunt, only I got these wicked powers now." She admitted. "I'm called the 'slayer."

"The slayer?" Buffy asked, openmouthed.

"The one and only." Faith said proudly.

"SHUT. UP!" Buffy bellowed in full valley-girl mode.

Faith glared at her, not getting what she meant.

"I'm the slayer too. I was the one and only, until I kind of died and came back to life." Buffy explained. "Then I managed to stay alive for a while, but as a result of my death another slayer was called."

Faith just smiled at her. "Always knew you were cool, B."

"Thanks Faith." She smiled back.

"So we're the chosen two huh? What are the odds." Faith stepped closer to her. "So how long you in town?"

"For good, actually. Mom divorced Dad and Dawnie likes this place better than LA."

Faith grinned. "You didn't mention any of this in your letter."

"YOU GOT MY LETTERS AND YOU DIDN'T WRITE BACK?!" Buffy advanced on Faith menacingly.

"Hey, hey." Faith put her hands up in surrender. "One letter, singular. Just got it." Faith fished it out of her pocket. "We moved years ago, but I just happened to feel like stealing mail from my old place just recently."

Buffy calmed down. "Sorry" she said. "I'm not usually a fan of stealing but in this case I'm all for it." She wondered briefly about what happened to the rest of her letters and who had kept them without passing them on.

Faith suddenly remembered her friends. "Oh… hey, you remember Willow and Xander?" she gestured to her friends who came out of their respectable hiding places and each said hello.

"Of course, I do. That sure was a great summer." Buffy said wistfully.

"You're telling me." Faith grinned. "Even though you gave me a girly makeover."

"I've missed you." Buffy admitted. "Nothing's been the same for me since I left this place."

"So I read." Faith said patting the letter in her pocket.

Buffy looked sad suddenly, so Faith leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "I can't say this in front of Willow and Xander, but you're still the best friend I've ever had, Tigerlily."

Hearing Faith's childhood nickname for her was all it took for Buffy. She closed the distance between herself and her best friend and put her arms around her neck, happy to be reunited.

It look Faith a moment, but she soon mirrored Buffy's actions.

"Another summer starts tomorrow, B. Promise you won't up and leave me and the end of it this time?" Faith joked.

"Count on it." Buffy smiled, not willing to break her hold on Faith.

Xander looked them over. "With the two chosen two in town, vamps won't stand a chance now."

Buffy and Faith just ignored him. To them, the chosen two was about more than just slaying vampires. It was about the time they had spent together that had changed everything and had taught Faith trust and love, and Buffy imagination and strength.

But, most importantly, it had created an unbreakable friendship that both girls would treasure forever.

The End

* * *

Thanks everyone for taking this journey with me. I've enjoyed writing this so much that I can't end it yet… I'd love to (find time to) do a whole sequel. If it ever hit the 100 review mark I'd definately have to do -something-. :P. Scrawn suggested I should do a rewrite of stuff from the series with this story as the background which sounds like an awesome idea to me. Some familiar villains could definitely stir up trouble for the Chosen 2 :). But at the very least at some point I'll do some more one-shots, explaining parts of this story I left vague or other slayer kid stuff just for fun. Or even conversations between them as adults.

And lastly a big thank you to all the people who supported this story:

Hio

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scrawn

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You all rock!

Love

Norificus


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